impeachment proceedings, it will be a whitewash--a means of exonerating Bush/Cheney, not of removing them from office or subjecting them to criminal proceedings. The reason is this: The crimes of the Bush White House are also the crimes of the national political establishment in general, including most of the Democratic Party leadership. They acquiesced to, and many have actively supported, unjust war, torture, massive domestic spying, shredding of our Constitution, and unprecedented war profiteer looting of our government coffers--to mention a few of the crimes that have been perpetrated by what is no longer our government. Our Democratic Party leaders
cannot impeach Bush/Cheney without impeaching
themselves. And it is no accident that they have also acquiesced to, and many actively promoted (and still promote), the fast-track conversion of our vote counting system to electronics, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls.
This fast-tracking of a completely non-transparent, privately controlled voting system occurred during the 2002-2004 period, as the result of legislation by the Anthrax Congress, in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution (Oct 02), and closely related to it. The IWR guaranteed unjust war; the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA--$3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle) provided the means for shoving the unjust war down the throats of the American people--nearly 60% of whom opposed the war on Iraq in Feb 03, just before the invasion (all polls), with a whopping 70% opposing it today.
There is hardly a member of Congress who can prove that he or she was actually elected. This may explain how it is that, with 70% of the American people opposed to this war and wanting it ended, we vote, and somehow produce a Congress that does the opposite--it ESCALATES the war, and lards Bush/Cheney with billions more of our tax dollars to keep killing Iraqis until they sign the oil contracts, and agreements for permanent U.S. presence in the country, to protect those contracts.
We vote, and we end up with essentially the same Congress we've had all along: 60% to 70% PRO-war (and pro other fascist policy). Some of that 30% to 40% or so minority in Congress tries hard to represent the vast anti-war and largely progressive majority in the country (one thinks of people like Conyers, Kennedy, Kucinich, Feingold and others), but, gee, they don't ever have enough votes to do what's right--by us, by our country, and for the rest of humanity as well. There are a lot of things that contribute to Congress continuing to be egregiously unrepresentative of the American people. The e-voting coup d'etat was the capper--the final, definitive blockade of any serious reform and any consequences for truly appalling crimes.
It is therefore extremely unlikely that any impeachment effort, if it occurs at all, will do anything but immunize Bush and Cheney, thus immunizing our entire political establishment, much like they immunized the telecoms for spying.
This system is designed to cause us despair--but we must not despair. We are not the first country to suffer a fascist coup. It has happened to others, and they have recovered, with difficulty, to be sure--but with the result being even stronger democracies. Look at South America! After all they've suffered (much of it U.S./corporate instigated), they are now on a strong, peaceful, democratic, leftist path--with good leftist governments elected in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay (!) (recently--their first leftist government in 61 years), and further north, in Nicaragua and also Guatemala (their first leftist government, ever). One of the main keys to this revolution has been TRANSPARENT vote counting--a democracy project they have been working on for over a decade, and which is finally bearing fruit. South America has now laid the ground work for a South American "Common Market," and have made social justice a common cause.
Have hope! If the South Americans can do it--after all the fascist horror they've suffered--so can we! And I urge everyone to get active on election reform at the state/local levels (where the power over voting systems still resides, and where ordinary people still have some influence).
-----------------
Election reform resources:
Here is a list of states and their current voting systems, for reference. All e-voting systems are run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code. The biggest of these democracy-killing corporations are Diebold (now called Premier), ES&S and Sequoia.
http://electionline.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1099 For an overview of the 2004 election theft, see:
"Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" by Robert Kennedy Jr. 6/1/06
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen "Secret Vote Counting Crammed Down the Throat of Democracy, " by Michael Collins (DU's Autorank) (--a searing election reform article for New Zealand's Scoop.com)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x971363 Information on electronic voting:
The Princeton study (2006) (e-voting machines extremely hackable)
http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/(comment on the Princeton study)
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3467 www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
Activist and informations sites:
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.votersunite.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election) :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
Read this and you will never vote on another electronic voting machine in your life:
"Poll Shock," by Bob Koehler (11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm ---------------------------------
:patriot: :think: :woohoo: :think: :patriot:
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