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Pelosi and other Democratic leaders who have said this--that impeachment is "off the table"--were, in effect, promising NOT to uphold their oath of office and defend the Constitution!
There are only two ways to hold an out-of-control president accountable: voting him out of office, and impeaching him. We were debarred from voting him out of office by the fasttrack installation of non-transparent vote counting all over the country, between 2002-2004, funded with $3.9 billion by the Anthrax Congress--in a bill engineered by Tom Delay and Bob Ney, abetted by Bilderberg 'Democrat' Christopher Dodd--the so-called "Help America Vote Act"--which gave our election system over to private Bushite electronic voting corporations, who "counted" 80% of the votes in 2004, using TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls. We have since been finding out that these voting machines and central tabulators are extremely insecure and insider hackable, and that part of the Delay/Ney/Dodd coup was permitting secret industry "testing" of the machines (fraudulent "testing"), lavish lobbying of election officials, and other highly corrupt practices. It is further evident that the vote to oust Bush was so big that the Bushites needed to additionally suppress millions of black, poor and other Democratic votes in strategic places like Ohio. Thus a 3% Kerry win of the exit polls (and an estimated 5% margin of victory in the unsuppressed vote--a landslide) was flipped over to a 2.5% Bush "win" late on election day, Nov. 2, 2004, by means of Diebold/ES&S's "trade secret" vote counting formulae.
If you're going to shove an unjust, heinous war down the throats of the people, in a democracy, you have to fix the elections. That's what they did.
Not all that surprising for Bushites. The part that we have failed to grasp is the collusion of the Democratic Party leadership in the war and in the 2004 election theft.
The Democratic Party's silence about who would be "counting" the votes in 2004--mainly two corporations, Diebold and ES&S, with very close ties to the Bush Junta and far rightwing causes--and how they would be "counting" them--under a veil of corporate secrecy--is mind-boggling. In order to understand it, you have to turn the telescope around, and reverse your perspective on the Democrats, our own party. Think about it this way: George Bush and the Bush Cartel have been conducting a proxy war for the Democrats, some of whom are known warmongers (Lieberman, Biden, Feinstein, Clinton), but many of whom lurk in the background, claiming ignorance and innocence, and maybe even descrying the "incompetence" of Rumsfeld and NeoCons, but voting billions and billions and billions of unaccountable dollars into their "incompetent" hands, time and again, and furthermore, voting AS ONE (all but TWO of the Democratic Senators in the Anthrax Congress*) in FAVOR of the infamous "Help America Vote Act."
As DeepThroat said, "Follow the money." The Iraq War has been the biggest pigsty for war profiteering ever created. And at least half of the Democrats--including the most powerful ones--are right in the thick of all that mud, blood and pigslop garbage.
This is why there is almost NO HOPE of a "withdrawal" of U.S. forces from Iraq. They are NOT going to give up those 15 PERMANENT U.S. military bases in Iraq. They're going to dither around with "withdrawal" schedules for several years, until a wider Mideast war can be manufactured, most likely via some phony "incident" with Iran (a la the "Gulf of Tonkin" incident that was used to justify escalation of the war on Vietnam--and ultimately resulted in the slaughter of some 2 million people).
If we look at the political situation in Washington DC realistically--apart from the "high" we have all felt about the recent midterm elections, and our earnest and passionate hopes for restoring our democracy (not to mention of our honor as a people and a country)--these conclusions are inescapable. EVEN WITH the new Democratic Congress, only a minority of our representatives--about 40%--truly represent the interests and views of the majority of Americans, SEVENTY PERCENT (70%) of whom oppose this war ('06), FIFTY-SIX PERCENT (56%) of whom opposed this war from the beginning (Feb. '03), EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT (84%) of whom oppose any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war ('06), and SIXTY (60%) to NINETY PERCENT (90%) of whom oppose every major "Bush" policy (for instance, 63% oppose torture "under any circumstances"; 90% are concerned or very concerned about the $10 TRILLION deficit--and these are '04-'05 stats).
Given all of the above, it is no surprise at all that the NEW Congressional leaders would put impeachment "off the table." Impeachment of Bush/Cheney would expose the War Party--which consists of Bushite "pod people" and War/Corporate Democrats, who have colluded on the war, AND on the destruction of our election system.
We CANNOT vote the War Party out of office. And we cannot impeach them--or, I should say, they will not impeach themselves. That is the situation--until we restore transparent vote counting.
We are open-mouthed with astonishment at these things--Bush/Cheney lawbreaking, the illegitimate war going on and on, and the Democrats promising NOT to impeach--because it is so hard to turn that telescope around and look at our our party. The Democratic Party is our only vehicle and hope for change on the national level. Hope blinds us. We are looking at the most incredible list of "high crimes and misdemeanors" ever committed by a U.S. administration--from outright, admitted felonies like domestic spying, to hundreds of "signing statements" exempting the president and his employees from laws passed by Congress, to torture and indefinite detention, to massive thievery, to treason (outing of an entire CIA counter-proliferation network), to the unjustified, deliberate slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
It boggles the mind (there's that phrase again) that impeachment has been put "off the table." We cast about for political reasons--maybe they're being cagey; maybe they're being realistic (only a third of the Senate was up for reelection, so it didn't undergo the big change the House did). We WANT to excuse them. But the fact remains that the new Congressional leadership--which includes some of our best and most representative leaders--is apparently going to LET THESE CRIMES STAND. And, what is worse, they are going to let these PRECEDENTS stand, because what is driving all this is not policy--it is money. Lots of it. And the only way to get MORE money out of the American people for the war profiteers is to force us into a constant state of war.
In the Diebold I Congress (the current Congress), we had about 25% of our representatives (half the Democrats) trying to represent the majority of Americans. In the Diebold II Congress--the new Congress with the Democrats in charge of the House and tentatively in charge in the Senate--we will have about 40% representation of the majority of Americans in the House, and far less in the Senate. This is a carefully crafted Congress--with a block of "Bushite Democrats" in the House (like those who voted for torture and suspension of habeas corpus a few weeks ago) who will act as "swing votes" against the interests of the American people--and an improved but still paralyzed Senate (with warmonger Lieberman** in a pivotal role). So the argument that leaders like Pelosi are being cagey or realistic makes a certain sense--until you ask yourself WHY, with SEVENTY PERCENT of the American people opposed to the war, we have so few anti-war representatives in Congress? Why are they still a minority? Why was the egregiously non-transparent vote count in 2004 never challenged by the Democrats? Why did almost all the Democrats in the Senate (save Barbara Boxer) not even challenge open, massive violations of the Voting Rights Act in Ohio, Florida and other states? Why can't they stop the war tomorrow, impeach Bush and Cheney, and be done with it--as they surely should, if we still had a real democracy in this country?
The erosion of our democracy has occurred over several decades and has involved an increasingly filthy campaign contribution and lobbying system, and the increasing corporate monopolization of our public airwaves by rightwing billionaire CEOs. But the capper--the final coup--is DIRECT corporate control of vote counting, using TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret that not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review it--no paper trail in a third of the states, NO AUDIT AT ALL in many states, and wholly inadequate and antiquated auditing/recount rules almost everywhere else.
And the Democratic Party supported this, voted for it, let it happen, WANTED it to happen, suppressed all discussion of it before and after the 2004 election, and are giving it only token attention now. The $3.9 billion electronic voting boondoggle filtered through Congressional fingers into state/local coffers--corrupting everybody along the way--thence into the pockets of the major Bush donors at Diebold and ES&S. The "trade secret" code is the essential element of direct Corporate control of vote counting, and, mark my words, that will not be banned by the new Congress. Even if the House tries to do it, the Senate will gut any such provision, or veto it.
As a democracy, we're back to square one: the right to vote. We cannot undo all of this corruption UNTIL we have restored TRANSPARENT elections. And the best place to do that is local/state jurisdictions, where ordinary people still have some influence, and where we have what may be only a short window of opportunity to get it done, before the Corporate Rulers get a bill through Congress that MANDATES electronic voting with "trade secret" programming still in place, and a worthless "paper trail" (zero or only 1-2% auditing). E-voting is NOT now required. (They accomplished it mostly through corruption.) We can still get rid of it.
The huge Absentee Ballot vote this time was a very positive sign that the American people are onto these rigged electronics, and can be organized to pressure state/local officials to restore transparent, verifiable vote counts (starting with the AB votes; demand hand-counting of the AB votes, and posting of the results BEFORE any electronics are involved--and try to snowball it from there).
We need to get on this now. The consequence of not doing so will be presidential tyranny, and endless war.
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*(The only two Democratic Senators who voted "no" on the "Help America Vote Act" were Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer. But, considering their other votes and their Corporate Ruler associations, this was not a vote for democracy. It was more likely the result of New Yorkers' attachment to their old, reliable lever machines. New Yorkers have strongly resisted the change to e-voting. CT also has the old lever machines, which are virtually unriggable, but I understand that, between the primary that Lamont won, and the final election that Lieberman won, a central electronic tabulation system was brought on line.)
**(The only hope for U.S. withdrawal from the Mideast, in current political conditions, may be a severance of the alliance between Israel and the Bush Cartel, and/or a severance of Israel's interests from those of U.S. war profiteers. This could conceivably happen, if the Israeli people wake up to the horrible position they have been put in, by their rightwing leaders and war profiteers. The U.S. war machine's presence in the Middle East--acting in the interests of the treacherous Bush Cartel--may have given Israel a temporary advantage, but long term, it could be lethal to Israel, which cannot survive as a tiny medieval fortress, bristling with armaments, surrounded by hostile neighbors. The Bushites have made things far, far worse for Israel, long term. The torture, looting and ill intentions of the Bushites in Iraq have alienated Israel's friends in the region, and frightened and infuriated its enemies. The region seems headed for all-out war, with the potential for nuclear holocaust. Israel might yet turn this around, if wise leadership arises there, by itself calling for U.S. withdrawal from the region, and beginning to see things from a REGIONAL perspective, with the common interests of all Middle Eastern peoples as the goal of its policies. Leaders like Lieberman need to be thrown on the dinosaur scrapheap (or change their thinking), and a new vision born of peace and cultural renaissance for the Middle East. A miracle? Well, South Africa underwent such a miracle, so maybe it is not so unrealistic. But until that time--and short of transparent elections in the U.S.--we are hogtied to a military defense of Israel, which suits our war profiteers and their war profiteers, and global corporate oil interests, just fine.)
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