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Open Letter to Congress: Must the system of checks and balances come from overseas?

By Kathryn Smith  Posted by Kathryn Smith (about the submitter)       (Page 1 of 3 pages)   4 comments
Message Kathryn Smith

Dear Congress:“My will, not thy will be done” is my joke about The Lord’s Prayer. A friend of mine replies with a smile: “And God says----NOT!”

~Where God and man are concerned, such is the relationship. But where Congress, the people and the Constitution are concerned, it really is the job---the paid position--- of Congress to say to Us, the People: “Thy will, not my will be done”. America is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The Constitution never defined the US government as being “of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations“. It also never said “Of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians”. Your job as Congress is to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution, which means intrinsically to implement the majority will of the American people. No one else.

~I regret to inform you, Congress, that you have chosen to do anything but that. The written statement by Sen. Diane Feinstein is a great example:

“We are going to have to disagree about this bill”, writes the Senator in her auto-reply about the flag burning amendment. However strongly many among us may agree or disagree about flag burning as a protected form of free speech is beside the point: The fact remains that with only a few exceptions, the overwhelming majority of you have taken the attitude that you are “the deciders”, seizing power which was never yours to begin with.

 Please be reminded, Congress, that we *pay* you to be implementers of the public will and not your own whims. You are our employees. You work for us, not the other way around! And that means that we have the right to fire you when the going gets rough. And we will, for all the reasons stated below.

~
A) Regardless of the fact that we are in a recession, you continue to fund the war, as if to deliberately bring the country into a depression, not merely a recession.

~Is this the thanks you have for the masses of people who pay your salaries with their tax dollars? Should we pay our own way into a depression and starvation just because you desire to squander *our* money in this way? Congress, you are frivolously playing with our financial and physical health. We hold you legally and morally responsible.

~
B) A war based on lies is better known as a mass murder ring. This is far from an act of “incompetence” as you say: It is a premeditated act. Is this what you insist on paying for, with our tax dollars? Unacceptable.

~C) Must the system of checks and balances come from overseas?  

~While still governor of Texas, our President un-elect had the highest record of capital punishment of any governor in US History. Hmm…..What of the fact that our President has broken more than 900 laws? Let me state that only gang leaders endanger a life out of revenge, as exemplified by the Valerie Plame case. Who but a criminal would abandon Katrina victims to die and withhold medical care from children and our soldiers? Since you refuse to impeach our President and our Vice President un-elect, is this the kind of behavior you support, Congress? Let me ask another very direct question: Who but criminals would treat signing statements as the law of the land?

~D) You have run roughshod over our civil liberties here at home, while touting Democracy abroad.

~“Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech, or of the press” says our first amendment: What about warrantless wiretapping? What of censoring and filtering the news media? What about gagging scientists from speaking up about global warming? What about gag orders in the National Security Letters part of the Patriot Act?

~ The first amendment “right of the people to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” is surely being violated by tasering peaceful protestors, by threatening to jail or forcibly remove impeachment button-wearing citizens from Congressional offices, and jailing those who rightfully tell Condi Rice that she “has blood on her hands”.  

~ “The right of all persons”----not merely all citizens----“to be safe in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized” states the fourth amendment. ~Only Red China jails people without warrant or probable cause, as legislated into the Patriot Act which you, Congress, voted for by overwhelming majority not once, but twice. What about CIA kidnappings and extraordinary renditions to countries overseas for torture? 

~ You know better than we, Congress, that Martin Luther King was wiretapped and shadowed by the FBI until he was finally murdered. And that’ s why laws prohibiting warrantless wiretapping were passed to begin with. So for what exact purpose would you now vote for warrantless wiretapping, if not to shut vocal people up? ~Oh, lest you think I forgot, the claim that this assists the hunt for terrorists is bogus:

~
The Nazis tortured innocent people and called them “The Enemy”, as you have done with more than 850 Guantanamo detainees who have actually been proven innocent. Yet you won’t let those innocent people go and you won’t close Guantanamo, despite torture being outlawed by US and International Law alike. Of all forms of racial profiling, this has got to be the most heinous.

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This quote summarizes the nature of my concerns and the content of personal experiences which stir my activism: "Necessity is the plea for every infringement on human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves". --Paul (more...)
 
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