Cowardice, Incompetence, Irresponsibility, and Treason Among Citizens is Killing America and the American Dream --Now we have to live the dream to save the dream.
Chances are, whether you see yourself as being on the political left, middle, or right you may have already decided to sell out your country and your children. You may have already decided to betray your ideals, the Constitution, and your freedom. Don't do it.
You might believe that the only people who have a chance of winning the next presidential election are those who have already announced their candidacy. And at this moment in time you might be intending to vote for one of them. If you intend only to vote for someone who you currently believe has a chance of winning, chances are, you will be betraying your country. Don't do that.
Under the 14th Amendment, Section 3 of the Constitution, not one of the candidates you have seen on TV is qualified to serve another term in Congress, let alone as president... at least not without a vote of two thirds of the each House of Congress.
Amendment XIV , Section 3
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
It is my argument and my contention that all of the candidates who have participated in the televised debates have given aid and comfort to enemies of our Constitution. They have given such aid and comfort to our enemies by not living up to their duty to defend the Constitution when it has been under attack. And who has attacked our Constitution? I say George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, members of his administration, and other citizens have done so...
By lying to the people of the United States, to Congress and to the world at large in order to start an illegal war.
By, in fact, starting an illegal war, during which they or their agents perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity, in addition to the crime against peace mentioned in Item 1 above.
By undermining the First Amendment on many occasions, including the forceful interruption or prevention of legal protests by concerned citizens at public political events.
By obstructing justice on many occasions, including falsely classifying documents as secrets in order to prevent the detection and prosecution of various crimes and dishonesties.
By participating in, through negligence, mismanagement, and/or fraud, the gross misuse and squandering of public funds.
By illegally suspending the right of habeas corpus and other legal protections.
By engaging in illegal wiretaps and other illegal invasions of privacy.
By undermining the right that all citizens have to defend themselves against arbitrary abuses of government power as provided under the Constitution.
By undermining treaties established under Article VI of the Constitution, which incorporates various rights and privileges belonging to citizens and non-citizens alike.
By promoting or allowing their agents to engage in torture of citizens and/or non-citizens in contravention of national and international law.
By illegally setting up prisons in other countries in order to evade national and international law and to torture people there without scrutiny or detection.
By lying about the practice described in Item 11 above.
By corrupting and mismanaging members of the CIA, other intelligence agencies, and many other government employees in order to carry out illegal activities against US and non-US citizens.
By facilitating a great injustice that was perpetrated on the American people by allowing and not bringing to justice those who engaged in illegal election practices that resulted in this administration undeservedly coming to power through methods of fraud and deceit.
By failing in their duty to protect and defend the legitimate rights of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan as they have been denied proper medical care, food, shelter, and other services required under international law by occupiers of an occupied country. Their infidelity has forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave and lose their homes and possessions as refugees; has resulted in the death and dismemberment of tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent people; has destroyed the infrastructure and artifacts of a culture, has squandered and mismanaged billions of dollars of Iraqi funds that were under the fiduciary care and supervision of US officials, and otherwise caused misery and pain to millions of innocent people.
By engaging in or allowing agents to engage in extra-judicial and summary executions without due process of law, resulting in the killing of innocent people.
By illegally avoiding Congressional oversight by various means including the illegal use of outside contractors and by giving certain contractors or their agents immunities, thereby protecting them from prosecution for crimes they have committed.
By undermining the Constitutional requirement to keep church and state separate.
By passing legislation that weakens and undermines fundamental Constitutional rights and protections of citizens.
By using illegal "signing statements" in an attempt to undermine Congress and the Constitution, putting everyone on notice that this administration will, at their own discretion, refuse to follow properly executed laws of the land.
By consistently lying to the American people about their aims, strategies, activities, and crimes.
By these and other means not named herein they have undermined the rule of law, both national and international, undercut America's reputation among citizens and the world community, and threaten the freedom and security of every American as well as the sustainability of freedom and democracy that every citizen hopes to pass on to their children and grandchildren. In short, the intention of this administration has been to subvert the Constitution and in many ways they have succeeded. Taken in total, their performance in office amounts to treason.
In each item listed above, every Democratic or Republican candidate to date who has formally announced his or her candidacy has allowed these crimes or misdemeanors to occur either knowingly or through gross negligence, without taking appropriate steps to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the people of the United States against these grievous acts, and by betraying their oath of office they are complicit in them.
I have enumerated many of the abuses this administration has perpetrated while these candidates, (for a very long time now), have remained silent when they could have challenged this administration. They could have called for or issued articles of impeachment to draw attention to and put a stop to these crimes, and also to seek justice in light of them. They could have taken their case to the American people and told the truth as they knew and discovered it. But they chose not to do so. Instead they have allowed these criminals to go unchallenged and to continue their dirty work day in and day out, to the disgrace of the institutions in which they serve and to themselves... and surely to the detriment of our nation and its people.
If you vote for any of these people, you are voting for people who are or should be disqualified from running for or holding any elective office. If you vote for them in spite of this, you yourself will be undermining the Constitution and what it stands for. Don't do that. Live the dream... if you don't, you'll share responsibility with them for killing it.
Mark A. Goldman is an activist, author, and now a Candidate for a Congress (7th District WA State) for 2008. Only the two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary election in August will be on the November ballot.
You're absolutely right. Someone needs to start calling a spade a spade, and it should begin with 9-11. You can't tell me that these candidates haven't taken the time to add two and two in order to understand what 9-11 and the rest of the crimes have really been all about.
They're all a bunch of cowardly, traitorous bastards for remaining silent.
by
Bill Cain (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 271 comments)
on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 9:30:40 AM
That may be so, but she is not running for President and she has no power to prevent any member of the House from entering articles of impeachment or anything else. All she can do is use her influence to persuade party members to follow her lead, which they are not legally or morally obligated to do. If members of the House are more loyal to their party, the President, or their corporate contributors than they are to the Constitution, then they ought to be removed. Their oath of office requires loyalty only to the Constitution.
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Mark A. Goldman (80 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 242 comments)
on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 1:42:40 PM
She threatened Conyers to get him to stop with his impeachment resolutions..Said she would keep him off the committee he now serves on. She is a real piece of work..I personally wonder how much corporate money has been stuffed in her pockets!....
I figured we were in trouble the night of the state of the union speech by Bush when she thought he was congratulating her for being the first woman Speaker..She didn't get that it was all about him being the first Pres. to introduce the first woman Speaker. Her whole persona reminded me of a twittering prom queen.
by
Rae (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 219 comments)
on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 2:43:45 PM
However, none of this excuses Conyers. He coveted his place in the party rather than stay true to his duty. Again... each representative has a duty to defend and protect the constitution. That sometimes requires sacrifice and courage. We expect sacrifice and courage from our soldiers and they put their lives on the line without flinching. Each representative takes the same oath that soldiers do. There are only 535 members of congress selected to represent nearly 300,000,000 citizens. We should be able to find that many citizens who have the strength of character to stay true to their word. To do that we all need to have enough character to vote in a manner consistent with our responsibilities as citizens. http://www.gpln.com/citizen.htm
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Mark A. Goldman (80 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 242 comments)
on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 3:13:21 PM
The only one that I have heard speak out and remains consistant not only with what he says but also with his votes is Dennis Kuchinich. He isn't one of the bought and paid for and that's why he doesn't get into the limelight with the ones that are...
If a 2/3 vote is needed to get rid of the trash among the elected, just kiss that thought good bye..that's about as many (maybe more) as we need to dump.
by
Rae (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 219 comments)
on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 2:57:55 PM
First of all, while Kucinich finally did enter very limited and abreviated articles of impeachment against Cheney, he waited a very long time to do it. Also, he failed to indict Bush and others and so far he has not made the case publically as I have tried to do that the grievances against this administration is not a small list, but a very serious attack on the Constitution.
What I am saying in my article is that none of these candidates qualify for public service because under Article IV they have abused their offices by not defending the Constitution. The Article says that in order for them to now qualify, it would require a 2/3 vote from both houses. In other words, they are disqualified unless congress acts to forgive them for their abuses.
As far as who is qualified to serve, it seems to me that we need to look beyond congress to find people who haven't betrayed their oath of office or their responsibilities of citizenship. There are such people. I can think of two off the top of my head, one of whom is a Republican. But there are surely many, some of whom have written articles at this site and other sites and have served their country in various ways. What we need is a true willngness to give up on the usual suspects who are running and seriously find ways of looking for and inviting other citizens to run... and then we need to help them succeed. We need new blood in government... we need people who are not part of the culture of greed and corruption that now exists. Government no longer works as intended. We need a new class of patriots to restore our republic to its true path of honesty and decency.
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Mark A. Goldman (80 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 242 comments)
on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 4:05:15 PM
Hey, a Writ of Mandamus is about to get off the ground on th
Great column.
Out here in Little Beirut (Portland OR), our scrappy impeachment bunch is just about to launch a national drive (we hope) for impeachers in each of the 50 to get an attorney to draft a Writ of Mandamus against the dems in their state Congressional delegation who are derelict in their sworn and only duty to support/defend the Constitution and have permitted it to be overthrown and democracy along with it. I'm delighted with your list and will pass your article on. Even if all 50 lower courts quash it, it'll scare the fraidy cat Dems maybe more than the DLC and its spokesperson Pelosi. To further scare the Dem org in our state, we're going to picket their regular meeting with signs directed at precinct workers "Don't Work for the DLC Dems" and "Don't Lift a Finger to Those Who Gave You the Finger on the the Blank Check to Bush."
Getting our 2nd wind here from near-burnout.
Barbara Ellis, member, South Side DFA MeetUp Group of Portland OR
by
Barbara (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 4:06:57 PM
