Neo-cons Not Aware of Any Impeachable Offenses.

 

Today I watched with anticipation the Judiciary Committee hearings on whether or not there was sufficient evidence, or any evidence at all, that the Bush Administration was corrupt, had abused its power and had mislead the American people regarding the war with Iraq, illegal spying and wiretapping of American citizens and if it had corrupted the Department of Justice.  Several other issues were touched upon but of course everyone was limited to five minutes to state their case which had the immediate and desired affect of limiting any attempts to actually expose the full scope of criminal activity by this corrupt and shameful administration. 

 

Of particular interest to me were the statements by ranking committee member Rep. Lamar Smith of the 21^st District of Texas.

 

According to Representative Smith, not only did he not believe that the Bush Administration and its cohorts in crime had committed any crimes worthy of investigation, he felt the hearings themselves were shameful and a waste of time.  Apparently Mr. Smith has either been in a coma for the last seven years, or is blissfully ignorant not only of what has transpired during this time but the affect these years have had not only on our civil liberties but also what it has cost us as a nation in blood and tears. 

 

Mr. Smith seemed not at all impressed with the facts that more than a million Iraqi’s have been slaughtered in this war for oil and greed, along with 4,127 American military men and women and that these deaths and this carnage was brought about by the lies of the worst president and administration we have ever had to endure as a nation.  Mr. Smith indicated that the president had committed no impeachable offenses.  That this supposed representative of a Texas district could make such statements with a straight face was a shock to the senses of anyone who had paid any attention at all to the illegal activities and actions of this administration since 2001.

 

Two panels were seated during this inquiry, and on the second was a gentleman named Jeremy Rabkin.  Mr. Rabkin is a professor of law at George Mason University although how this man managed to obtain such employment must be a mystery.  Professor Rabkin was brought in as a witness apparently to bolster the neo-con position that it’s only a crime if a non global elitist does it.  What a pitiful example of the neo-con mindset this man is. 

 

In what I can only describe as one of the most overly animated, gesticulating, face contorting diatribes I have ever witnessed, Professor Rabkin loudly proclaimed that the mood of the people in the room was “demented”.  (I found it to be quite passive and docile until he himself began raging.) It would seem, according to the professor, that anyone in the room or out of the room who believed that impeachable offenses had been committed were deranged.

 

While this neo-con buffoon did everything but physically jump on the desk and twist his body into the shape of a pretzel he presented not one shred of legal expertise to support his contention that there was no offense.  Far from coming off as a legal expert on Constitutional law, or any law at all for that matter, the professor seemed more to be auditioning for the Gong Show.  Mr. Rabkin’s appearance must have been more for distraction than for substance.  It was distracting and also quite uncomfortable to watch.

 

So, has the president committed any impeachable offenses?  Let me count the ways!  Illegal spying and wiretapping, data mining on US citizens,  manipulating intelligence to attack Iraq,  launching a pre-emptive war of aggression,  kidnapping and disappearing of foreign nationals,  secret prisons, torture,  signing statements directing departments and agencies not to abide by the law,  claiming powers not delegated to the  executive,  issuing executive orders contrary to constitutional law,  declaring himself above the common law,  illegal imprisonment, holding prisoners without charges, the intentional genocide of the Iraqi people for the benefit and gain of multinational oil cartels, corruption of the Department of Justice,  attempting to launch yet another war of aggression by provoking Iran,  entering into the Security & Prosperity Partnership intended to dissolve our sovereign nation,  failing to secure our southern border from illegal invasion,  and mounting an unmitigated War OF Terror against the American people.  This is the short list.

 

So what do you think, Mr. Smith?  Mr. Rabkin?  Can you look at this short list of offenses and still claim that nothing here is indicative of impeachable offenses? 

 

These two gentlemen were surely not the only ones on the committee or panels who feigned indignation at the mere thought that anyone might want to hold this administration accountable, but they are the two who stood out, especially Mr. Rabkin whose head I thought was surely going to explode at one point if it didn’t break away from his body totally and spin across the room.   

 

This may come as a shock to these gentlemen, but the American public has come to its own conclusions about this administration and its activities, and it was no thanks to either of you or people like you. It is after viewing such things as this hearing today, that I find myself wondering how Mr. Smith and Mr. Rabkin have continued to hold any position at all as both seem to be either clueless or so dedicated to the dead elephant in the room, the herd passed by them unnoticed

 

And the elephant is dead for all intents and purposes.  Yet, as today showed us, there are still those who believe that the neo-con tactics of distortion, manipulation, stonewalling, ranting and over-acting are still clung to by a few who refuse to admit the American people have tired of these antics, are no longer amused by them, and no longer sucked in by them.   

 

Today also exposed one other thing; there is still a number of people willing to forfeit our country, our Constitution, our lives, rather than defend and protect the Constitution of the United States and our laws, as long as there is some benefit for them in doing so, whether hidden or overt.  For these individuals, party affiliation, political pandering and inclusion in what can only be described as an anti-American movement is far more important than preserving our nation and protecting not only our government, but its people as well, from a cabal dedicated to seeing it destroyed. 

 

Whether congress moves to impeach this criminal administration or not, the majority of people in the United States have.  We didn’t have to call in cartoon professors, or put dummy politicians on a committee…..we figured it out for ourselves.  And, if ordinary people can look at the actions of this administration, and admit that they were duped into a war on behalf of oil cartels; if they can find evidence on their own that a massive deception and fraud was perpetrated on the American people that has cost so many lives; if they can comprehend and realize that everything we hold dear is being stripped away from us……why can’t congress? 

 

It seems a strange thing to me that ordinary citizens are willing to speak up and speak out about the travesties of this administration, that they can see the need to bring to accountability those who have so terribly abused their offices for reasons other than the over used “national security” excuse and yet our elected representatives are either unwilling or intentionally obstructing any efforts to act in defense of our country.

 

The neo-con, anti-American faction of the Republican Party has yet to realize that the dead elephant in the room, is them.  The only thing missing in today’s circus sideshow put on by the neo-cons was the lack of some raging Evangelical, born-again, God is putting a word of knowledge in my heart right now, rock star preacher. This was most likely just an oversight. After all, the clowns were there. 

 

©2008 Marti Oakley

 

C-SPAN:

www.cspan.org/videoarchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,

 

C-SPAN | Capitol Hill, The White House and National Politics – C-SPAN

www.c-span.org/

 

Rabkin, Jeremy

www.law.gmu.edu/faculty/directory/rabkin_jeremy

 

Congressman Lamar Smith 21st District of Texas

lamarsmith.house.gov/ 

We’re All In This Together

I originally wrote this article as the closing editorial for December 2007, for what was then an email version of the PPJ Gazette.  It seems very relevant considering the state we are in as a country today. Current count has 33 Republicans from both the House and Senate voluntarily leaving office.  As I predicted in this editorial….something big was coming down the pipe and these rats knew what was coming.

The End of a Nightmare Year and a 2008 Forecast

The year 2007 will most likely go down as one of the most stressful for all Americans. It seems that at every turn we have been battling an ever increasing separation between “We The People” and our government.

My instincts tell me that something big and awful is coming down the pipe and those in the inner circles of D.C. are fully aware of what that is. Career politicians are resigning, or not seeking re-election in record numbers from the Republican party. This is the same party that rubber-stamped every rights robbing piece of legislation they could find; that still blocks any attempts to end the war; and created one of the worst economic disasters ever in our history. We are now, thanks to those neo-cons, the largest debtor nation ever in the history of the world.

My suspicions actually began after (R) Conrad Burns lost his Montana senatorial seat to (D) John Tester in 2006. Burns, a virulent neo-con did something totally out of character after losing by a slim margin. He conceded and walked away. In fact, in every instance where a Republican was unseated there was no objection or protestation. In fact, these former office holders couldn’t get out of town fast enough.

After the 2006 election several other strange things happened. Nancy Pelosi, the new and first female speaker of the house, immediately announced that impeachment was off the table. This announcement came with the full knowledge that the Democrats had won both houses at least in part because voters expected them to impeach Bush. This was perceived, and is, a massive betrayal of voters.

Next, Jon Conyers who had been waging an internet war for impeachment and who had built an extensive site dedicated to this very thing, suddenly decided that he would not move forward with his initiative.

In this last year we have had to fight off repeated attempts to give amnesty to illegal immigrants even though the majority of Americans have made it very clear that they are against amnesty and want our laws enforced. Although this issue in particular, crossed party lines, it was inevitably portrayed as “ALL Republicans are against it, and ALL Democrats are for it”. Considering that 78% of Americans are opposed to amnesty in any form, I think we could safely say it is not a matter of party affiliation.

The Democrats have not moved to repeal or rescind even one of the Executive Orders or legislative slights of hand that expanded the power of the presidency. Instead they are busy throwing their support behind yet another piece of legislation S. 1959 that will quickly be converted to use against those of us who opt to exercise our constitutional right to dissent.

We have had one investigation after another and the only positive thing that came from that to this point is that Alberto Gonzales, one of the most corrupt AG’s we’ve ever suffered, resigned.

We have endured countless hours wasted in both houses passing non-binding (meaning nonsensical) resolutions against the war, and voting to declare the Iranian Guard as a terrorist group. Considering that we are using our precious military to attack non threatening countries in an effort to gain control of their oil, what is to stop other countries from declaring our military a terrorist organization and a threat to world peace?

We stood by silently as yet another attorney general was sworn in who claims not to know weather water boarding is torture or not. The committee vote that allowed his nomination to go forward was facilitated by all Republicans on the committee and two Democrats who caved in and decided that since they themselves stood little chance of being strapped to a board and tortured, what difference did it make?

Few of us stood up and spoke out when two of our border agents, Ramos and Compean, were sentenced to ten years or more in prison for shooting a drug smuggler in the butt. And fewer of us said a word when Homeland Security had to admit that they lied in order to procure a conviction and that the Mexican government was instrumental in their prosecution of the agents.

We watched in disbelief as Scooter Libby’s sentence was commuted before it was even passed down. Not one Democrat or Republican stood up to make any real objection.

Karl Rove left the White House when the possibility of being prosecuted on any number of issues looked as though it could become a reality. Leaving as he did, allowed him to legally delete more than three million emails associated with his office. In other words, evidence was destroyed. And there isn’t a thing we can do about it.

It is said that just prior to a major tsunami animals in the area will start running to higher ground seeming to know instinctively what is coming and that they must flee in order to survive. My advice is to look at the rats running from our government. If it isn’t high level cabinet members, its senators and representatives who are taking flight.

Dick Cheney is divesting himself of American investments and currency and moving into foreign markets. The Bush’s have the Crawford ranch up for sale (along with that high tech command center that taxpayers paid for so Bush could run the country from the ranch) and the Bush clan is looking at buying 22,000 acres in Argentina.

There is a tsunami coming for America but those who created it will be safely on higher ground when it hits. Maybe when we are embroiled in a battle for survival for our own nation we will finally dispense with the right vs. left paradigm and realize that we are all in this together and that what religion we are or aren’t, who says they have more morals or better values, who is more patriotic, will cease to be part of the dialogue. Maybe then we can get down to being fully engaged Americans with only one goal in mind: Preserving our sovereignty and re-establishing our nation as the once great country it was.

Marti Oakley

 

Original printing December 2007

Reprinted February, 2008

Reprinted November 1, 2008