Advancing the Cause of Civilization

Most thoughtful people would agree that we have an obligation to advance the cause of civilization.  We owe it to our children, our grandchildren, and to posterity.  We are not only stewards of the earth, as are all human beings, but we Americans are also stewards of the original American vision as established in 1776.  Remember the cause of liberty?

Today our nation, our constitution, our principles, our system of government, and our economic system have all been trashed beyond recognition.  The founders’ vision of America has been subverted, perverted and twisted into a tortured parody of itself that mocks us all daily.  

What’s worse is that the status quo being so desperately defended by corporate interests (which includes our government) is dooming us all to perpetual war purely for the sake of profit (could anything be more evil), and keeping us from focusing everything we have on the critical problems that confront us – problems such as global warming, the need for alternative energy, the need for new and sustainable models for our economy and our culture, the global food and water crises, and the desperate need for pro-human policies, serious diplomatic initiatives and human rights protections and guarantees for all the people of the world.

Torture must be banned on earth in the twenty-first century.  We must refuse to be dragged backwards into the dark ages by traitors and war pigs.  We must commit to the advancement of civilization, and oppose all those who are so insanely intent on dismantling it instead.  

We should not only end torture, we should end war.  

We are civilized, we are smart, we are organized, and we have ridiculously powerful technology in harness and at our command.  There is absolutely no reason why we should be acting like brutish barbarians.  We have the capacity to curb our aggressive instincts, rise above our hideous past and to realize the noble potential humanity has always possessed – the potential to live in harmony and cooperation both interpersonally and internationally.  We should accept nothing less from ourselves.  

And by that yardstick we are blowing it big time.  We are a nation consumed with trivial matters, extraneous concerns, foolish notions, magical thinking and propagandistic fairy tales.  We are a people who have tolerated the intolerable.  We’re a nation-full of fiddling Neros, and our very world is on fire.

We need to quit squabbling with each other, quit killing each other, and shift our focus to the serious challenges we face as a species.  We can no longer afford petty distractions like George Bush, Dick Cheney and their ilk.  The reigns of power need to be taken away from these boys forthwith and kept from them from now on.  How much incompetence, ill will and sheer evil do they have to demonstrate before we fire their asses, arrest them, charge them and drag them off to jail?

And as for the vaunted Democrats, Reid, Pelosi and all the rest will go down in history as traitors.  That’s the only word that fits.  If they are too corrupt and disloyal to impeach the criminals in the Whitehouse they deserve nothing less than to be remembered for the traitors they are.

We can’t afford to tolerate this nonsense any longer.  We need to rise up and take our damn country back and we need to start by demanding impeachment for Dick Cheney.  Support Dennis Kucinich’s H.R. 333 impeachment of Dick Cheney.  

110th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. RES. 333

Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 24, 2007

Mr. KUCINICH submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

RESOLUTION

Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Resolved, That Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate:

Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, against Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Article I

In his conduct while Vice President of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of Vice President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests, to wit:

(1) Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Vice President actively and systematically sought to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States about an alleged threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction:

(A) `We know they have biological and chemical weapons.’ March 17, 2002, Press Conference by Vice President Dick Cheney and His Highness Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain at Shaikh Hamad Palace.

(B) `. . . and we know they are pursuing nuclear weapons.’ March 19, 2002, Press Briefing by Vice President Dick Cheney and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem.

(C) `And he is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time . . .’ March 24, 2002, CNN Late Edition interview with Vice President Cheney.

(D) `We know he’s got chemicals and biological and we know he’s working on nuclear.’ May 19, 2002, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.

(E) `But we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons . . . Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.’ August 26, 2002, Speech of Vice President Cheney at VFW 103rd National Convention.

(F) `Based on intelligence that’s becoming available, some of it has been made public, more of it hopefully will be, that he has indeed stepped up his capacity to produce and deliver biological weapons, that he has reconstituted his nuclear program to develop a nuclear weapon, that there are efforts under way inside Iraq to significantly expand his capability.’ September 8, 2002, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.

(G) `He is, in fact, actively and aggressively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.’ September 8, 2002, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.

(H) `And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.’ March 16, 2003, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.

(2) Preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq the Vice President was fully informed that no legitimate evidence existed of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The Vice President pressured the intelligence community to change their findings to enable the deception of the citizens and Congress of the United States.

(A) Vice President Cheney and his Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby, made multiple trips to the CIA in 2002 to question analysts studying Iraq’s weapons programs and alleged links to al Qaeda, creating an environment in which analysts felt they were being pressured to make their assessments fit with the Bush administration’s policy objectives accounts.

(B) Vice President Cheney sought out unverified and ultimately inaccurate raw intelligence to prove his preconceived beliefs. This strategy of cherry picking was employed to influence the interpretation of the intelligence.

(3) The Vice President’s actions corrupted or attempted to corrupt the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, an intelligence document issued on October 1, 2002, and carefully considered by Congress prior to the October 10, 2002, vote to authorize the use of force. The Vice President’s actions prevented the necessary reconciliation of facts for the National Intelligence Estimate which resulted in a high number of dissenting opinions from technical experts in two Federal agencies.

(A) The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research dissenting view in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate stated `Lacking persuasive evidence that Baghdad has launched a coherent effort to reconstitute it’s nuclear weapons program INR is unwilling to speculate that such an effort began soon after the departure of UN inspectors or to project a timeline for the completion of activities it does not now see happening. As a result INR is unable to predict that Iraq could acquire a nuclear device or weapon.’.

(B) The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research dissenting view in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate also stated that `Finally, the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are, in INR’s assessment, highly dubious.’.

(C) The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research dissenting view in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate references a Department of Energy opinion by stating that `INR accepts the judgment of technical experts at the US Department of Energy (DOE) who have concluded that the tubes Iraq seeks to acquire are poorly suited for use in gas centrifuges to be used for uranium enrichment and finds unpersuasive the arguments advanced by others to make the case that they are intended for that purpose.’.

The Vice President subverted the national security interests of the United States by setting the stage for the loss of more than 3300 United States service members; the loss of 650,000 Iraqi citizens since the United States invasion; the loss of approximately $500 billion in war costs which has increased our Federal debt; the loss of military readiness within the United States Armed Services due to overextension, lack of training and lack of equipment; the loss of United States credibility in world affairs; and the decades of likely blowback created by the invasion of Iraq.

In all of this, Vice President Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Vice President, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

Read Articles II and III here.

Bush, you’re next.

And if congress wants to slap us in the face again, this time we shouldn’t stand for it.  If they won’t move against the criminals we should throw them all out.  The Constitution gives US the power to do that.  If they aren’t going to defend the Constitution, we should make sure to use it to the fullest while it still exists.

To do anything less would be to turn our backs on our solemn obligation to the advancement of civilization – and we must never allow that to happen.