The Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, has resigned for being a longtime customer of a high-priced prostitution ring.
The President of the United States, George W. Bush, remains, disgracing his office for longtime repeated violations of the Constitution, federal laws and international treaties to which the U.S. is a solemn signatory. In his forthright resignation statement, Eliot Spitzer—the prominent corporate crime buster—asserted that “Over the course of my public life, I have insisted, I believe correctly, that people, regardless of their position or power, take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself.”
In a recent speech to a partisan Republican fund-raising audience, George W. Bush fictionalized his Iraq war exploits and other related actions, and said that next January he will leave office “with his head held high.”
Eliot Spitzer violated certain laws regarding prostitution and transferring of money through banks—though the latter was disputed by some legal experts—and for such moral turpitude emotionally harmed himself, his family and his friends.
George W. Bush violated federal laws against torture, against spying on Americans without judicial approval, against due process of law and habeas corpus in arresting Americans without charges, imprisoning them and limited their access to attorneys. He committed a massive war of aggression, under false preteneses, violating again and again treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, federal statutes and the Constitution.
This war and its associated actions have cost the lives of one million Iraqis, over 4000 Americans, caused hundreds of thousands of serious injuries and diseases related to the destruction of Iraq’s public health facilities. As the popular button puts it, "He Lied, They Died".
From the moment the news emerged about Spitzer’s sexual frolics the calls came for his immediate resignation. They came from the pundits and editorialists; they came from Republicans and they started coming from his fellow Democrats in the Assembly.
Speaker Sheldon Silver told Spitzer that many Democrats in the Assembly would abandon him in any impeachment vote.
George W. Bush is a recidivist war criminal and chronic violator of so many laws that the Center for Constitutional Rights has clustered them into five major impeachable “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” (under Article II, section .4)
Scores of leaders of the bar, including Michael Greco, former president of the American Bar Association, and legal scholars and former Congressional lawmakers have decried his laceration of the rule of law and his frequent declarations that signify that he believes he is above the law. Many retired high military officers, diplomats and security officials have openly opposed his costly militaristic disasters.
Only Cong. Dennis Kucinich (Dem. Ohio) has publicly called for his impeachment.
No other member of Congress has moved toward his impeachment. To the contrary, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Dem. Calif.), Rep. Steny Hoyer (Dem. MD) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman, John Conyers (dem. Mich.) publicly took “impeachment off the table” in 2006.
When Senator Russ Feingold (Dem. Wisc.) introduced a Resolution to merely censure George W. Bush for his clear, repeated violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act—a felony—his fellow Democrats looked the other way and ignored him.
Eliot Spitzer came under the rule of law and paid the price with his governorship and perhaps may face criminal charges.
George W. Bush is effectively immune from federal criminal and civil laws because no American has standing to sue him and the Attorney General, who does, is his handpicked cabinet member.
Moreover, the courts have consistently refused to take cases involving the conduct of foreign and military policy by the president and the Vice President regardless of the seriousness of the violation. The courts pronounce such disputes as “political” and say they have to be worked out by the Congress—ie. mainly the impeachment authority.
Meanwhile, the American people have no authority to challenge these governmental crimes, which are committed in their name, and are rendered defenseless except for elections, which the two Party duopoly has rigged, commercialized, and trivialized. Even in this electoral arena, a collective vote of ouster of the incumbents does not bring public officials to justice, just to another position usually in the high paying corporate world.
So, on January 21, 2009, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will be fugitives from justice without any Sheriffs, prosecutors or courts willing to uphold the rule of law.
What are the lessons from the differential treatment of a public official who consorts with prostitutes, without affecting his public policies, and a President who behaves like King George III did in 1776 and commits the exact kinds of multiple violations that Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other founders of our Republic envisioned for invoking the impeachment provision of their carefully crafted checks and balances in the Constitution?
Well let’s see. First, Bush and Cheney are advised not to travel to Brattleboro or Marlboro Vermont, two New England towns whose voters, in their frustrated outrage, passed non-binding articles instructing town officials to arrest them inside their jurisdictions.
Second, George W. Bush better not go to some men’s room at an airport and tap the shoe of the fellow in the next stall. While one lame-duck Senator barely survived that charge, for the President it would mean a massive public demand for his resignation.
We certainly can do better as a country of laws, not men.
that since it would seem that Bush and company are above the law, then all Americans have the right to be above the law as well. Why should I have to obey the law when nobody else has to.
by
Michael Morris (18 articles, 0 quicklinks, 15 diaries, 300 comments)
on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 12:00:40 PM
Only, in the words of Howard Zinn, "The wrong people are in jail".
George Bush, Dick Cheney et al are free to walk the streets.
Mortgage bankers that used predatory lending practices and defrauded millions of home buyers will not spend a night in jail.
Hedge funds that cannibalized profitable US businesses, raiding pension funds, selling off companies piecemeal and sending jobs overseas are were rewarded with extraordinary profits and CEO pay packages. Now that they are crumbling (aka Bear Stearns) the Fed and the taxpayers are bailing them out (of course they are not calling the bail out of the financial markets a taxpayer bailout) but that is what it is.
The bottom rungs of our society have no health insurance, poverty wages and increasingly better jobs are being outsourced by our fortune 500 companies in the name of increased profits.
The companies run our government.
The people behind bars - well, the majority are on non-violent drug charges - rehabilitation, education and job placement would have been a more productive form of our tax dollars - instead we continue to the world leader in building prisons and warehousing people.
The message - if you are a petty criminal, watch out.
If you hide behind a corporate or political veil of protection- feel free to loot society, be a "destroyer guy", and pocket as much of the taxpayer cash as possible.
And still, the American people cannot see, denial is a wonderful thing.
by
August Adams (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 442 comments)
on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 1:20:04 PM
"Only Cong. Dennis Kucinich (Dem. Ohio) has publicly called for his impeachment...No other member of Congress has moved toward his impeachment."
Mr. Nader is incorrect here. Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida has been a vociferous advocate of impeachment. Quoting Congressman Wexler on the issue of impeaching Vice President Dick Cheney,
"I strongly believe that, in the case of the Vice President, there is such evidence and I am pushing for formal hearings to learn the truth. America expects us to ask hard questions of our leaders, and history shows that we must."
Mr. Nader is to be commended, not denigrated, but there are other patriotic people – albeit too few – in Congress who are active in the impeachment process and attempting to restore the rule of law.
For more information about Rep. Wexler on impeachment, please visit:
There is only one way to get their attention, for real
And it's not a march on Washington...even if you had a million people show up... the Corporate media would not cover it, in it's full scope...But... If you had 50-100 million people stay home from work for a day or so... you'd get the attention of the banker whores and their politician lapdogs in a hurry. I do see some kind of large scale work stoppage...but not in the near future. Unless these idiots think about attacking Iran for real.
You would think by now, that with hundreds of political action groups on the web...there would be some sort of cohesiveness to form a powerful resistance by now...nope...too many cooks, not enough waiters. But hey, we can get 70 million to talk about Super Bowl TV commercials the next day :(.. "hey check out my new iPod!" :(
Nader is a nat on the back of a grizzly. Sorry but his best days are in the rear view mirror. There will be NO CHANGE for the better in this country... until massive suffering takes place. I wish I was wrong, but history says different. Nam had a huge resistance, but only because of the draft. (suffering)
by
Scott Ledger (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 135 comments)
on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 12:04:05 AM
You are right-the change will not be soon. I hope you all have read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" and perhaps some of the writings of Milton Friedman, the Nobel winning economist (shows even the Nobel committees can make serious mistakes) and father of the new free market, laissez faire system of disaster capitalism. Klein lays it out well in her review of the history of economic chaos in Latin America, China, Russia, Iraq and now the US, among others. We are staring this mess in the face.
One of the base line tenets of Friedman is privitazation. Another is the creation of economic chaos, allowing the very wealthy to walk in and buy up the gutted remains of corporations, infrastructure, national resources, for pennies on the dollar. (see the stories in this issue of OpEd News with regard to the cheap buyout of the remains of BearSterns and the indemnification of that buyout by the US taxpayer.)
The wealthy and politically and economically powerful are once again plundering our country, leaving us jobless, homeless, without health or retirement benefits, just as Friedman laid out. The Bush administration is following Friedman's blueprint to a "T". Destroy public benefits, strip public services such as health and education, raise unemployment to horrendous levels, displace and buyout. Destroy the opposition in any way necessary, such as spying on citizens, identifying dissenters and using detention and perhaps even death squads, such as those run under American auspices in the latter part of the last century in Latin America. Create and foster hell on earth and you can buy it all, control it all, have it all and leave nothing behind.
Look it all over-Milton Friedman taught at the University of Chicago as did his contemporary Leo Strauss, father of the neocons. Their classes were frequented by a number of the neocons now in power (Wolfowitz comes immediately to mind). Check it out. Both said to use shock and awe. Both said to use or create disaster. Both literally left a legacy of total disaster.
by
Jack Harrington (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 310 comments)
on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 10:19:15 AM
gasoline boycott. Imagine if 50-100 million Americans decided to boycott gasloine purchases for a few days...that would also send a big message to the power elite. ANother thought..defend the 2nd Ammendment by spending all of your "rebate" checks on firearms and ammo. of course, do this in private one on one transactions to avoid big brother from knowing....
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Thom Daniels (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 1:10:26 PM
I tried to get a boycott going in the past. Simple concept. Most don't buy boycotts that last a few days are not having an impact on the corporations selling this product. I proposed something different, if you like it, pass it on.
We pick a company-say Exxon Mobil, and a time frame, say Easter to Christmas, and in that time frame we buy no E-M products at all of any kind. If the prices come down and stay down and the windfall profits drop dramatically, we either wind up the boycott, pick a new company to boycott or extend the boycott on E-M. It has worked locally for me in the past. It can also be applied to, say, drug companies, etc. (ask the doc or pharmacist to fill the prescription from another company's product line where ever possible and do not buy any of their over the counter products.)
Let us hit them where it will hurt them the most.
by
Jack Harrington (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 310 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 10:42:16 AM
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