August 15, 2007
by Steve Osborn

I've been trolling the "blogosphere" rather heavily the past few days, trying to make sense out of the Congress' passing of the secret FISA Modernization Act, its failure to call any of the Executive to account for the latest bunch of Constitutional atrocities perpetrated by the Cheney/Bush gang, its failure to put a stop work order out on their Iran pre-emptive nuke attack plans, etc. I fear the problem may well be worse than just Democratic stupidity, fear, or inertia.

Think about it for a moment. In the past seven-plus years, we have seen the Cheney/Bush gang forge a "Unitary executive," virtually unchallenged by the congress of either party. Lip service, yes, to keep the voters pacified, but the Constitutional remedies readily available are routinely "taken off the table" even in the face of overwhelming evidence. We now have an Executive that routinely makes its own laws, which are rubber stamped by the Reichstag, excuse me, Congress. It vetoes anything it doesn't like with little more than token protest from the Congress.

The Congress has approved the appointment of unqualified party hacks as Supreme Court judges over the strong protest of the people and the legal community.

The Supreme Court was intended to be the Constitutional watch-dog over legislation and edicts by the Executive or the Congressional branches. The reason for lifetime appointments was to keep them free from any possible political pressure or contamination. Look back on earlier Supreme Court nominations. At one time, some of the finest judicial minds in the country were considered. There was even a lot of soul searching as to whether they were qualified to be a Supreme Court judge. The Senate often carefully considered the nomination, and thoroughly questioned the candidate. His background was meticulously checked, and his judicial decisions examined. Usually, those judges worked hard to live up to the trust that We the People put in them. They were Constitutional scholars.

Look at the current process. Any party hack with a law degree from a recognized school, with an impeccable record of following his party's line, regardless of legal precedent, may be proposed as a candidate. The Senate carefully avoids asking any potentially embarrassing questions and, unless the candidate has done something absolutely obscene or illegal, in public, the Senate rubber stamps the appointment.

As a result, the court has transformed over the years; from one that upheld Constitutional values, to one that, in 2000, abrogates an election rife with fraud to appoint by one vote, a president.  In doing so, they virtually disenfranchised the entire United States Electorate. The Supreme Court has now descended into one that is favorable to a Unitary Executive, or to put it in less euphemistic terms, a dictatorship.  It has worked hand in hand with the other branches of government to steadily roll back much of the civil and human rights legislation that We the People worked so hard to achieve over the past half-century or so.

Most of the above is obvious to about seventy percent of the American People, many of whom have been steadily writing, phoning and e-mailing their alleged representatives, asking that they reverse this - that they take the lead and impeach this gang before they can do more damage. No, they are told, it is "off the table," it "would be divisive," it would "take time away from more important things." What could be more important than curbing a dictatorship and reaffirming the Constitution and Bill of Rights, our raison d'etre as it were? Let's look at this from a congressional perspective for a moment and perhaps we'll see a reason.

Assuming that the Bush Gang doesn't perpetrate a black op, declare martial law, cancel elections for the "duration of the emergency" which Cheney/Bush have already said will last long after we are gone, what have we got in place?

Since Congress has not curbed these excesses in the past seven-plus years, has allowed the executive to shred and burn the Constitution which it swears to protect and defend; since Congress has not forbade the unilateral cancelling of treaties which, once ratified became part of the law of the land; since Congress seems to allow anything to be covered up by "executive privilege" or claims of national security, we are left with a staggering bunch of legal precedents.

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Assuming we have elections in 2008, and assuming that they will not be the fraudulent charades the last few have been, the new President will inhereit all these powers intact and functioning. The new "leader" will have legal precedent for using these new powers at will. The dictatorship will have just been passed into new hands.

Can you imagine Clinton or McCain with the powers that Cheney/Bush have usurped? I think the Democratic Party is not about to do anything to curb the Cheney/Bush gang's power grab because they expect to inherit it, to use for their own ends!

Thomas Jefferson said, "The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."

In the past seven plus years, the Congress has carefully allowed the links of those chains to be severed so they can inherit the legalized, criminal version of government that Washington DC has become.

What can We the People do about this?

Thomas Jefferson also said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

Short of a bloody revolution in which We the People must take to the streets in the face of the dictator's Blackwater mercenaries with almost unlimited firepower, backed by the enormous wealth and power given to their owners from our treasury, and the probable use of whatever military force can be spared from foreign conquests, our recourse is to unite as a people, regardless of "race, creed or national origin," as we once united to drive fascism from European shores, and drive it from our shores.

We must unite and search for people who will put the good of the nation, the good of We the People before personal greed and power. Then, we have to elect them overwhelmingly, not as Democrats or Republicans (They are just part of the same two-backed beast. One back has a "D" on it and the other has an "R" and in between is corporate wealth and power, pulling the strings), but as Independents, as Americans, dedicated to the task of returning the Constitution and Bill of Rights, intact and functioning, to the Halls of Government; dedicated to the repeal of the "Enabling Acts," the mis-named Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act; dedicated to the return of habeas corpus, and the posse comitatus act.

In short, We the People must find members of We the People (not members of the ruling elite). We must find people dedicated to returning to us the Constitutional form of government that once made this country great, and also dedicated to ensuring that this will never again happen to the United States of America.

If we can accomplish this, I'm sure we can then begin to rebuild trust and confidence in the United States throughout the world. That, too will take an enormous amount of effort, but it will be worth it.

Remember, on September 12, 2001 the entire world put its collective arms around us. It would have done anything to help us recover. It would have sought out the perpetrators and brought them to justice. The only thing that destroyed that support is the same thing that has destroyed the United States. The Bush gang and the neocons with their dream of bloody conquest, shock and awe, and world domination. That and, the long-developing establishment of a dictatorship over the American People.

It is We the People, not the Congress, that can bring about this change, for Congress has proven itself part of the problem. The solution has got to come from us, We the People, or we shall surely fail and the forces of wealth, greed and power will take over for many more years.

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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.