Latest Threads
Latest
Greatest Threads
Greatest
Lobby
Lobby
Journals
Journals
Search
Search
Options
Options
Help
Help
Login
Login
Home » Discuss » Journals » pat_k » Read entry Donate to DU
Advertise Liberally! The Liberal Blog Advertising Network
Advertise on more than 70 progressive blogs!
Get Up, Stand Up!
Posted by pat_k in General Discussion
Fri Mar 30th 2007, 11:54 AM
. . .through openly hostile possession. (With the emphasis on "open.")

When squatters move in, it is the property owner's responsibility to commence eviction proceedings. If the property owner fails to serve notice for long enough, squatters claim title, and Poof! -- the property owner isn't the property owner anymore.

Bush and Cheney are openly trespassing on our Constitution intentionally. It is the means by which they are grabbing and holding powers we have denied them under the Constitution. They are saying:
We claim Unconstitutional and Un-American unitary authoritarian executive power to violate any Federal law at will to 'protect the nation.' International law doesn't apply to our actions because we say it doesn't.

To prove our claims:
  • Here we are, committing War Crimes under U.S. Code (Title 18 section 2441) and international law. If we follow the Geneva conventions, we can't "protect the nation" so we aren't following them.

  • Here we are, violating FISA (Title 50, Section 1805). If we get warrants from the FISA courts, we can't "protect the nation" so we aren't getting warrants.

  • Here we are, nullifying McCain's anti-torture amendment with a signing statement. (An amendment that passed the Senate 90-9) . We need to torture to "protect the nation."

  • Here we are nullifying a few hundred other provisions with signing statements. We are nullifying these particular provisions, but of course, we claim unitary authoritarian power to violate any law, whether previously nullified by signing statement or not.
and so on
Each of the above violations constitutes an independent, simple, clear, and complete case for impeachment of both Bush and Cheney (Both of them because they both promote the fascist fantasy of a unitary authoritarian executive). By "complete" I mean that staffers will find all the materials needed to make the case in the public record and that there are plenty of witnesses like Alberto Mora (general counsel of the United States Navy thru Jan 2006), ready and willing to testify.

We the People "own" the nation. Members of Congress, who we empowered and charged with the duty of evicting (impeaching) such trespassers, are refusing to act. They are allowing Bush and Cheney to claim "ownership" of unconstitutional power under the old adage, "possession is 9/10ths of the law." (An adage that is grounded in common law.)

Their refusal has created a national crisis graver than any natural disaster or social ill. It is bigger than any international crisis. By tolerating the intolerable, they are surrendering our capacity to recover from disaster with humanity, solve our common problems in ways that reflect our common values, and serve as a force for good in the world. When the good will of the American people is cut out of the loop, no peoples, not our fellow Americans, not other nations, can look to us for help.

Surrendering your property to squatters without a fight is insanity, but that insanity doesn't compare to the magnitude of the insanity of surrendering a nation without a fight. But that is precisely what Members of Congress are doing when they say that the immediate impeachment of Bush and Cheney can't, won't, or shouldn't happen.

Attention all Members of the House:
Your oath is a individual oath; your duty an individual duty. Pick a charge, draft a set of articles, introduce them, and call on your colleagues to hold impeachment hearings to make the case for those articles (or some other set -- there are so many high crimes to choose from). Each day that you refuse to defend the Constitution by initiating the "eviction" process is another day of complicity in the fascist take over of our constitutional democracy.

While some of you may choose to be party to the treasonous campaign to consolidate unconstitutional powers in the executive, a vast majority of you know that no president -- not Bush, not Cheney, not McCain, not Hillary, not anybody -- can be allowed to claim unlimited power to "protect us."

We gave you, and only you of all our constitutional officers, the power to initiate the ONLY process that can remove the trespassers.

Redeem yourselves today. Act. Open your mouth. Accuse. Pick any one of the charges and Impeach. Call on Members of the Senate to evict, as they must to uphold the principle that government power can only be derived from the consent of the governed (the single moral tenet on which the Constitution, and therefore the nation, rests). If they fail to remove, impeach on the next charge, and if necessary, the next. Even if you believe it will be a charge of the light brigade, you are duty bound to charge, if only to establish a historical record that some Americans were willing to fight these horrors.

Discuss (12 comments) | Recommend (10 votes)
Purpose
To promote simple truths and moral positions that guide effective action.

We are the ones we've been waiting for

Get Up, Stand Up
Bob Marley

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!

Preacherman, dont tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
Its not all that glitters is gold;
alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!

. . .
We sick an tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin n goin to heaven in-a jesus name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you cant fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do? ),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah!)
. . . Complete Lyrics


Visitor Tools
Use the tools below to keep track of updates to this Journal.
 
Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals  |  Campaigns  |  Links  |  Store  |  Donate
About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy
Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.