“The Vice President has run utterly amok and must be stopped.”
Posted June 27, 2007 on Slate, conservative Bruce Fein lays out a compelling case to impeach vice president Dick Cheney:
“As Alexander Hamilton advised in the Federalist Papers, an impeachable offense is a political crime against the nation. Cheney’s multiple crimes against the Constitution clearly qualify.”
When the topic of impeachment comes up, conservatives and Republicans decry the notion, offering up the question, “But what crimes has he committed?”
In summary, Fein recounts the following reasons for impeachment. See the article for details:
- Cheney’s claim that the office of the vice president is above the Constitution because it serves executive and legislative functions, not required to follow the Senate or Executive rules. President Bush also performs legislative functions, does that exempt him from the Executive Branch?
- Cheney “has proclaimed that all checks and balances and individual liberties are subservient to the president’s commander in chief powers in confronting international terrorism.”
- “The vice president asserted presidential power to create military commissions, which combine the functions of judge, jury, and prosecutor in the trial of war crimes.” (rebuked by the Supreme Court)
- “Mr. Cheney claimed authority to detain American citizens as enemy combatants indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay on the president’s say-so alone” (rebuked by the Supreme Court)
- “The vice president initiated kidnappings, secret detentions, and torture in Eastern European prisons of suspected international terrorists.” (Germany and Italy have charged the CIA with crimes because of it). “The legal precedent set by Cheney would justify a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to kidnap American tourists in Paris and to dispatch them to dungeons in Belarus if they were suspected of Chechen sympathies.”
- “he contends that military power may be unleashed to kill or capture any American citizen on American soil if suspected of association or affiliation with al-Qaida.”
- “Mr. Cheney has championed a presidential power to torture in contravention of federal statutes and treaties.”
- “He has advocated and authored signing statements that declare the president’s intent to disregard provisions of bills he has signed into law that he proclaims are unconstitutional”… “tantamount to absolute line-item vetoes that the Supreme Court invalidated in the 1998″
- “The vice president engineered the National Security Agency’s warrantless domestic surveillance program targeting American citizens on American soil in contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.”
- “He concocted the alarming theory that the president may flout any law that inhibits the collection of foreign intelligence, including prohibitions on breaking and entering homes, torture, or assassinations.”
- “The vice president has orchestrated the invocation of executive privilege to conceal from Congress secret spying programs to gather foreign intelligence, and their legal justifications.”
- “He has summoned the privilege to refuse to disclose his consulting of business executives in conjunction with his Energy Task Force, and to frustrate the testimonies of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers regarding the firings of U.S. attorneys.”
- “Cheney scorns freedom of speech and of the press. He urges application of the Espionage Act to prosecute journalists who expose national security abuses”
- “He retaliated against Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, through Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, for questioning the administration’s evidence of weapons of mass destruction as justification for invading Iraq.”
- “Mr. Cheney is defending himself from a pending suit brought by Wilson and Plame on the grounds that he is entitled to the absolute immunity of the president established in 1982 by Nixon v. Fitzgerald. (Although this defense contradicts Cheney’s claim that he is not part of the executive branch.)”
- “President Bush’s tacit delegation to Cheney and Cheney’s eager acceptance tortures the Constitution’s provision for an acting president. The presidency and vice presidency are discrete constitutional offices”…which “circumvents the 25th Amendment.”
- “Cheney is impeachable for his overweening power and his sneering contempt of the Constitution and the rule of law.”
Bruce Fein is a constitutional and international lawyer with Bruce Fein & Associates and The Lichfield group, having served as associate attorney general under President Reagon. He was also part of the ABA Task Force on presidential signing statements.
Still not convinced? Read the Washington Post’s documentation of the vice president’s assertion of executive powers.
Interestingly, presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama has said he opposes impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
According to the CNN political ticker while speaking at a weekly constituent breakfast, “The Illinois Democrat said he would not back such a move although he has been distressed by the “loose ethical standards, the secrecy and incompetence” of a “variety of characters” in the administration.”
Obama believes in another course of action, “vote the bums out”…”That’s how our system is designed.”
Obama summarized his reasoning in the following way: “I think you reserve impeachment for grave, grave
Therein lies the question, dear reader: Have Cheney’s constitutional breaches been grave?
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Written on June 29, 2007 | Posted in
Politics,
President Bush |
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[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/jimbo.flv[/flv]
“You can’t end a war”
Republicans are abusive to logic.
The basic premise of this man’s argument is that you can’t simply end a war, you have to win it or you choose to lose it.
What a deadly premise.
In the video (Jimbo) states:
“You can’t end a war, you either win it or you lose it”…”wars are won or lost, and the cost associated with that in the lives of our troops makes it a very vital distinction.”
Also:
“We’re trying to end it to, we just want to win”
Holding on to a quixotic notion of victory to save face is unbelievably irresponsible, causing more people to lose limbs, lose family members, and be killed to protect others’ egos. Wars are not that simple, you don’t just win or lose, and anyone holding out for a categorical victory will never be satisfied.
There are extreme differences between how Republican hardliners view the war and how the majority of others do.
The speaker is right about one thing though, the “cost associated with that (difference) in the lives of our troops makes it a very vital distinction.”
It is indeed.
He wants to win the war at any cost, while the thoughtful want to ensure our goals are accomplished in a way that stands up to our country’s principles.
If the next President agrees with Jimbo here, expect the wars in Iraq and beyond to last at least four more years.
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Written on June 25, 2007 | Posted in
Politics |
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Shifty victim pulls a paradigm shift
Written on June 24, 2007 | Posted in
News |
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Rahm Emanual
takes on Dick Cheney
It was reported by the Washington Post on Saturday that President Bush’s has determined the National Archives law ensuring the preservation of classified documents pertaining to the Executive Branch does not include the office of the vice president.
The Bush Administration is so accustomed to stretching reality it is now rearranging the composition of the Executive Branch. If they don’t like the rules they change the game.
Reported by Patrick O’Connor on the June 23, 2007 Politico Blog, The Crypt, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel has suggested defunding the vice president’s office if it continues to insist that it is not part of the Executive Branch.
Politico:
“The Vice President has a choice to make,” Emanuel said in a statement. “If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch. However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules.”
“This amendment will ensure that the Vice President’s funding is consistent with his legal arguments,” Emanuel said. “I have worked closely with my colleagues on this amendment and will continue to pursue this measure in the coming days.”
This is the type of accountability the Democratic Congress needs to pursue.
After years of wish-wash spin, political balderdash, and lethal arrogance by the Bush Administration, Americans expect Congress to issue results. We’ve waited long enough, and the Democrats need to play (bipartisan) hardball.
The negativity associated with Republican-controlled government appears to be carrying over to Congress according to recent polls.
The Democratic Congress needs to quickly differentiate themselves from President Bush and the previous Republican Congress, not only on policies, but in style and actions.
Full disclosure of all earmarks would be a good way to start.
Democrats need to set clear, achievable goals and deliver if they expect to expand or retain their slim majority. We’re tired of listening to this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtDxZJIkwUE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edemocraticunderground%2Ecom%2F[/youtube]
Americans want less rhetoric and more action from their representatives.
Now about that war…
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Written on June 24, 2007 | Posted in
News |
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Iran cracks down on Western influence
Ebrahim Noroozi/Fars News Agency
From the New York Times article by Neil MacFarquhar, Crackdown on Dissent is Under Way In Iran:
Young men wearing T-shirts deemed too tight or haircuts seen as too Western have been paraded bleeding through Tehran’s streets by uniformed police officers who force them to suck on plastic jerrycans, a toilet item Iranians use to wash their bottoms.
The country’s police chief boasted that 150,000 people”…” were detained in the annual spring sweep against any clothing considered not Islamic. More than 30 women’s rights advocates were arrested in one day in March, according to Human Rights Watch, five of whom have since been sentenced to prison terms of up to four years.
They were charged with endangering national security for organizing an Internet campaign to collect more than a million signatures supporting the removal of all laws that discriminate against women.
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Written on June 24, 2007 | Posted in
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Religion |
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[flv]http://garlinggauge.com/videos/sicko911.flv[/flv]
9/11 First Responders could go to jail for traveling to Cuba in “SICKO”
Traveling with Michael Moore to Cuba for (free) health care unavailable in the States, 9/11 first responders highlighted in the new film “SICKO” could be facing jail time.
Ug.
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Category: 911
Written on June 23, 2007 | Posted in
911 |
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Who are you listening to? Conservatives.
The Center for American Progress and Free Press have issued a joint report entitled The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio, in which it reports that conservative radio dominates the airwaves.
An article on their website about the report notes the following:
- “Our analysis in the spring of 2007 of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners reveals that 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and 9 percent is progressive.
- Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk—10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.
- A separate analysis of all of the news/talk stations in the top 10 radio markets reveals that 76 percent of the programming in these markets is conservative and 24 percent is progressive, although programming is more balanced in markets such as New York and Chicago.”
While not surprising, the numbers are still daunting.
The report concludes “that the gap between conservative and progressive talk radio is the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system,” and that ” Ownership diversity is perhaps the single most important variable contributing to the structural imbalance based on the data.”
With the country split so evenly along idealogical lines, there is a clear disparity between what Americans think about issues and what perspectives are available on the radio.
The study offers three ways to tackle the issue:
- “Restore local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations.
- Ensure greater local accountability over radio licensing.
- Require commercial owners who fail to abide by enforceable public interest obligations to pay a fee to support public broadcasting.”
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Written on June 23, 2007 | Posted in
Politics,
media |
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Cardinal Renato Martino of the Vatican flanked by a Ferrari Enzo
Thou shalt not drive a Ferrari
Responding to a document issued by the Vatican that includes the driving “Ten Commandments“, Ferrari has rejected the notion that buying their automobiles is a sin.
As reported by Reuters, “Ferrari’s general manager acknowledged the Vatican’s concern that some drivers could use the cars as status symbols, but he said most people bought Ferraris for the love of driving.”
According to the Vatican document, “Cars particularly lend themselves to being used by their owners to show off, and as a means for outshining other people and arousing a feeling of envy”
“Unless having fun has become a sin, I don’t believe it (to be wrong),” Ferrari’s general manager Amedeo Felisa told Reuters.
Vroom Vroom.
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Written on June 22, 2007 | Posted in
Religion |
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Obama now has ringtones
What other candidate could do this?
Imagine a Rudy Giuliani or a Jim Gilmore ringtone.
I don’t think so.
Sen. Barack Obama’s connection with youth’s zeitgeist notwithstanding, it remains to be seen if he can translate his appeal into votes. Either way, your ringtone could use an update. Listen and download them here.
While addressing the National Action Network on April 21, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Obama “stopped briefly as a cell phone on the podium began to buzz loudly.
“There’s something humming down here. Is that Hillary calling?” Obama asked, to an explosion of laughter and cheers.”
Don’t have a crush on Obama? Fret not. If you desperately want a Tom Tancredo ringtone and can’t find it anywhere, you can always make your own at RingTones08.com, “a free site that lets anyone upload and download ringtones about the 2008 election.”
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See also
Category: Obama
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20Clinton%20Hillary%20Rodham%20Clinton.JPG
Written on June 22, 2007 | Posted in
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In his June 20, 2007 article Builder In Chief, Slate’s architecture critic discusses a new book by Steve Vogel, The Pentagon: A History
Focusing primarily on FDR and the architectural interests (or lack thereof) of U.S. Presidents, Witold Rybczynksi notes some interesting historical tidbits from the new book on the geometric shape of the Pentagon itself, metonymically referred to as the entire Department of Defense.
In the article on the book, Rybczynksi explains that Franklin D. Roosevelt made important decisions as to the location and shape of the building. In summary:
Originally slated by the Army and Department of War to be built across the Potomac river from the Lincoln Memorial, the pentagonal shape of the building fit the needs for that location.
The Commission of Fine Arts opposed the location however, and Roosevelt agreed, moving the Department of War headquarters to its current location while retaining its geometric shape.
Once the design of the building was released, the CFA took issue with that as well, but Roosevelt disagreed, telling the commissioners. “I like it because nothing like it has ever been done before.”
Rybczynksi notes that “Roosevelt’s influence on architecture was, on the whole, positive. The Pentagon was originally in the wrong place, and the five-sided plan was a good solution for a building that large.”
But Roosevelt wasn’t always level-headed.
In 1941, “Roosevelt proposed a radical change to the pentagonal plan. Since the newfangled building was to be air-conditioned, he argued, there was really no need for light wells or courtyards, so why not make it a huge solid square windowless block? Think of all the savings of space and money.”
After some persuading, the project leader and Secretary of War convinced the President to keep the Pentagon, a pentagon.
Listen to the NPR story on this subject here.
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Written on June 21, 2007 | Posted in
military |
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