To contradict the Firesign Theatre, everything we knew…..was right.
George Bush DID give himself dictatorial powers. And Congress let him. John Cornyn at the Leahy Torture Commission today said that Congress should be given credit for oversight. I can’t even give them credit for sight.
With the crimes that were committed….and those that could have been committed….under these memos, what we have is a massive house of cards. Now, one by one, as evidence emerges piece by piece, those cards are being pulled out from under the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress. As well as the Democrats who let the Republicans buffalo them…as a President gave himself secret dictatorial powers.
The Bush Crimes and attempted usurpation of the Constitution were committed under a shroud of secrecy. The Bush corruption of the Department of Justice made that shroud impenetrable.
But let it never be forgotten that the Speech or Debate Clause existed during those eight years. If there has ever been a time in our history when an opposition party should have put everything on the line to expose what they knew, this was it. And they didn’t.
Now, they have to fix this. They have power now, almost unlimited power, as (ironically) many of the gross excesses of the Unitary Executive/dictatorial powers are still in place.
This cannot stand.
Barack Obama and the Democratic controlled Congress MUST investigate fully and expose exactly how this was allowed to happen, but most importantly, they must find a way to FIX the system that allowed a president to become a dictator by his own fiat. Or it will surely happen again. Investigate and reform Executive Branch Powers, investigate and reform the Department of Justice.
Clean house.
From the Congressional oath of office: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;”
A domestic enemy assaulted the Constitution, that is clear now. What is not clear is what will be done about it. In light of the vast scope of the corruption of democracy itself, I have to say that Senator Leahy’s truth commission is needed. Only a vehicle of immensely broad scope, as opposed to the relatively narrow scope of prosecutions, can address something so vast. No single case or even congregation of cases will ever truly capture what happened…and what could have happened.
While prosecution of these domestic enemies must take place, the scale of what happened to corrupt our very form of government is not and never will be fully prosecutable. It goes beyond that. Well beyond. And the American people must be made to know what occurred, how deep and wide the threat to democracy itself truly was. The Constitution was assaulted, democracy was assaulted, We The People were assaulted.
What occurred in this country is well beyond politics, and perhaps even beyond the Law itself. It is so momentous that at this time, it cannot even be comprehended. But comprehended it must be.
Now we have to figure out how, next we have to figure out what to do about it.
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and continue to do so….I salute you
OPOL
Either Obama and Congress lets it stand and the United States will be over when the next Nixon acolyte gains the presidency.
Or, they can investigate, expose, hold accountable, and, as you underscore, FIX the dictatorial loopholes and the United States has a chance to survive.
Obama wants to look to the future and not to the past. But unless he fixes the abuses of the past, Obama condemns the future to tyrany.
Hmmm….everything….
I have this picture of Yoda in my head.
http://www.brianoleary.info/
Ah, what the hell, all of this page is relevant today.
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/
How close we came or how close we are right now. The extreme of the neo-con right immedidately flipped into the extreme of the kumbaya left. You may not be able to contain the sheeple and if they did wake up whom do you think they would blame. Exponentially rising “opposing” views.
Fat cat elite scumbags can,do,profit in either up or down markets. They look at the dark sky of North Korea. Do they see the human tragedy of an oppressed people? No they see a vast untapped labor resource
On the other side, the brightly lit night sky of South Korea the oppression is kinder, gentler and far more high tech. New Songdo city, Orwell’s wet dream on steroids comes complete with you are under arrest instant phone messages. Guns or propaganda, does technology really give you a choice.
has to be revealed from the outside and it is not going to work if it comes from one source only. I think pushing Congress is necessary but will not work as they helped bring us to this sorry state. In order too get the truth of what happened the commission would have to tell a story that shows the legislative branches culpability in allowing the constitution, bill of rights and balance of power to be shredded for naked power and the Empirical Presidency.
Like the economy meltdown this did not happen overnight. Years of abuses and commissions that haggle the law culminated in this rogue regime. I do not believe that we can move on if this is not addressed. On the torture we need people outside the legislature entity that either enabled this or at best did not stop it.. The legislative branch is too compromised politically to do it alone. the very fact that they took impeachment off the table, passed and funded this tyranny, makes them unfit to deliver real truth.
It’s a good start that Whitehouse and Leahy are tackling this but we need other sources also. Why can’t a commission include those like the ACLU and Amnsty International agency’s and lawyers who are/were not involved and witnesses. It needs to be about what was done to humans where are the victim’s voices? Why are there no Iraqis testifying? Why are the truths redacted? The balttle cannot just be about policy.
Justice Sandra d O’Connor on the daily show said that only 1/3 of the country can name the three branches of the government. Civics are no longer required in our schools. Information must get to the people. The DOJ must step up and do it’s job and even the president must be willing to let go of this truly unconstitutional concept of the ‘decider’. I guess as part of the 1/3 who understand the basics of our system we have to keep working every aspect that shows promise of getting the truth out there. Hard to put power ceded back in the bottle.
Obama is (not that we don’t already) if he doesn’t find reason to start giving back the power which W gathered.
We need a Special Prosecutor!
And, buhdy, I agree that the scope is broad!
But, despite that fact, I think we should stick, mainly, to the war crimes and wire-tapping issues! Why? Because those issues already have so much established proof, that investigations and prosecutions would not take long, or involve that much money.
As for the rest, more memos, etc. Much more evidence would be forthcoming with discovery procedures in the investigations, and could be relegated to a committee to review and correct where necessary.
All laws and signing statements should be reviewed by a committee as to their constitutionality and legality, and where not in compliance, repealed.
These are just my initial thoughts!
just now, I missed most of it. someone should find it and post it tho.
but it was good to hear the public hear it……
they need to understand the price of their fear……
they need to understand that the price of their fear was all of our freedom……..
I want it back……
John Yoo, the Professor at Berekely. These guys need to be shamed.