(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Crossposted at Daily Kos
If accountability is off the table, so is Democracy.
In an age when the rich and powerful have more control over the creation of the law than ever we face the greatest threat to our Democracy we have ever known. We have met the enemy, and he is us.
If the rich and powerful can bribe lawmakers to do their bidding AND those lawmakers are not subject to the same laws they are supposed to uphold than there is no freedom, there is no equality, there is no justice. The biggest threat to our democracy is not a man with a bomb in his pants or a hijacker flying a plane, it is a man with unlimited power and no one that he must answer to. If that man is an American he is capable of doing more damage to America than any terrorist could ever dream of.
If you love freedom and Democracy please join me below the fold.
On Thursday, dkos user Stranded Wind and I were invited to meet some major players at the heart of the Bush/Cheney Accountability Movement, including NYTimes best selling authors Naomi Wolf and legendary prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, as well as Charlotte Dennett, whose new Book “The People v. Bush: One Lawyer’s Campaign to Bring the President to Justice and the Nationwide Grassroots Movement She’s Encountered Along the Way” was just released this month.
The Accountability Movement will NOT “look forward” not until we have justice.
To that end, I say this.
These words can NOT become official American policy.
“If the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.”
~ President Richard Nixon
If the current administration fails to hold the previous one accountable for the war crimes that are the Iraq war, the torture of human beings and the subversion of the rule of law, they will have unleashed upon America a new feudal age, one where all laws are meaningless. There can NOT be two systems of justice, one for the rich and powerful and one for everyone else. At that point, American Democracy will cease to exist in everything but name. At that point King George will have won two hundred years later than expected.
Without accountability there is no justice, no hope, no peace. Without the rule of law applied equally to all there are no rules, there are no laws, except the law of the jungle, and that would undo everything our founding fathers stood for. We will have traded the divine rights of kings for the protective aegis of the office of the President, and that power which is above the law will trickle down to every other office and position of power until we have a system of tyranny by consent. Without equality there can be no justice, and if one man is above the law all other men are beneath it. That is when America ends, and that is what I will fight until my last breath escapes me.
Naomi Wolf, who I had the pleasure of meeting this Thursday, is the author of “The End of America: Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot.” Below you can watch a video based on Naomi’s assessment of how close we are to losing our Democracy. In my opinion, it should be required viewing for all American patriots whether they are Democrats, Independents or Republicans.
“They call it revenge, I call it justice.”
~ Naomi Wolf
My question to you, fellow patriots, is this . . . .
If Accountability is off the table, is not Democracy off the table as well?
The businessmen of 2010 fear no accountability. The politicians of 2010 fear no accountability. If this is not addressed immediately, the common citizen will soon live in fear of them.
If the President is above the law he is not a Public servant, he is a king, and you are less than an equal citizen of America with equal rights. If the President is a king, than it is the citizen who is a servant.
http://www.prosecutionofbush.com/
“Fascism is capitalism plus murder.”
~ Upton Sinclair
In The People v. Bush, Dennett recounts her seminal effort to prosecute the former president, introduces readers to a world where the actions of a few can indeed empower the many, and reports on the current state of the movement to hold Bush accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Dennett’s wild ride through politics began when she read The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by lawyer Vincent Bugliosi (best known for his prosecution of Charles Manson). In it, Bugliosi stated that one path to prosecuting George W. Bush could be taken by a state attorney general-should one take up the cause. Soon after, Dennett launched her attorney-general race in Vermont-a state known as much for its progressive edge as its pioneering spirit-signed up Bugliosi as her special prosecutor in the event that she won, and together the two made headlines across Vermont and the nation for changing the face of American grassroots democracy.
Going back to the title of this diary “Charge the President with Murder.” I would like to ask these questions to you, my fellow patriots. Can Democracy survive without accountability? Can there be freedom without justice? And if the Bush/Cheney Administration is above the law and can get away with murder what is to stop this President or the next from going one step farther? What is to stop America from becoming a tyranny by the Rich and Powerful, for the Rich and Powerful and of the stuff that our founding fathers feared more than anything else.
Give me accountability and equality under the rule of law or give me death. One is certain for all men and women, the other is one of the only things truly worth fighting for.
If the President can get away with murder without even a trial he might as well be a king, and if Barack Obama’s Administration does not seek justice they will have failed in such a way that history will never, ever forgive us.
I hope and pray that such a day never comes, and I will fight until my last breath to see that that day shall never come.
Will you fight?
Also crossposted at TheProgressiveElectorate.com
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Without Accountability, nothing else is worth a damn
to account, and one does not, one owns their crimes.
Look — I’m not trying to attack the current administration gratuitously anyway, but if I saw a robbery no one else saw and decided, well rather than telling the police it was more important for me to look forward, I would be criminally complicit in the crime.
If I choose to willfully overlook criminal behavior (as a peon) — I am most certainly answerable for that, criminally. I am a criminal in so doing myself. Or not doing so. And I might get away with it or I might not, but I would still be criminally answerable.
That “it’s more important to look forward” than to follow the train of justice wherever it leads is possibly as bankrupt a thing as I’ve ever heard from this administration — and I’ve heard a number of bankrupt things from this administration IMO. One does not willfully overlook crimes like this to “move forward”.
For another thing we have no guarantee that the Justice Department will act without total capriciousness when it applies multiple standards to the same actions. I already don’t believe it acts non-capriciously.
so THAT’s where you’ve been, MoT! lol.
Favorite proverb:
and thanks for adjusting your title. ;-}
Excellent work.
Shit Im already afraid, I censor myself on this blog for fear of retaliation.
Also it’s not that the present admin. is quilty for the pasts acts. It’s resonsible for obstructing the justice dept. Obama did instruct DOJ to ‘move forward’ and gave credence to the ‘I was just following orders’ defense that was not allowed the Germans or Japanese post WWII. Of course Im not a lawyer and dont play one on TV
Great piece MOT, I really enjoyed Naomi Wolfs lecture.
No I do not ask for the absolute belief in the sum total of the vast video archives there. The expansion of which is like Naiomi Wolf on sci-fi steroids. We grew technologically but not spiritually or rather have we not been allowed to grow spiritually on purpose and by collective design by forces of evil beyond comprehension by the “normal” population. That would be the new Holy War indeed if it were that simple. Stop listening to “them” and manifest our real destiny.
I am probably the least vengeful person I know. I’ve always been a fool for forgiveness. This has nothing to do with forgiveness, though, does it? These people broke the law, they killed and maimed and tortured to cover up a lie that led us into war, and it just makes me sick to think of it. What’s the real motivation of the current administration have for looking the other way? Will someone explain it to me like I’m a 6 yr old, please? Who/what has their balls in a vice?
stranded wind has one up now worth a look.
we can lose, but it’s not tangible. Is Democracy merely a political process, or does it also embody values that are reflective of the betterment of humanity?
IMHO, if it does not include the latter, then we will never see the betterment. For if Democracy does not embody True Humanistic Values, the “process” just becomes a hollow routine.
Democracy will wither and die without a “spirit of justice” felt not only by the people, but by the government representatives also. It is this spirit that animates the process.
Material and economic justice are just not compatible with Capitalism. So if Capitalism is the sine qua non of Democracy, then I don’t see how justice can prevail.
And let’s face it, the military has always existed to protect the elite in every culture/empire. It’s a zoological curse.
I’d rather be working on development than retribution, but until we clear some of the standing deadwood in the Senate I don’t think that is going to happen. And until we clean up the corruption of the Bush years we are going to get no forward motion at all.