Like squatters, Bush and Cheney are laying claim to unconstitutional power. . .

[pat_k]

. . .through openly hostile possession. (With the emphasis on "open.")

When squatters move in, it is the property owner's responsibility to commence eviction proceedings. If the property owner fails to serve notice for long enough, squatters claim title, and Poof! -- the property owner isn't the property owner anymore.

Bush and Cheney are openly trespassing on our Constitution intentionally. It is the means by which they are grabbing and holding powers we have denied them under the Constitution. They are saying:

We claim Unconstitutional and Un-American unitary authoritarian executive power to violate any Federal law at will to 'protect the nation.' International law doesn't apply to our actions because we say it doesn't.

To prove our claims:

• Here we are, committing War Crimes under U.S. Code (Title 18 section 2441) and international law. If we follow the Geneva conventions, we can't "protect the nation" so we aren't following them.


• Here we are, violating FISA (Title 50, Section 1805). If we get warrants from the FISA courts, we can't "protect the nation" so we aren't getting warrants.


• Here we are, nullifying McCain's anti-torture amendment with a signing statement. (An amendment that passed the Senate 90-9) . We need to torture to "protect the nation."


• Here we are nullifying a few hundred other provisions with signing statements. We are nullifying these particular provisions, but of course, we claim unitary authoritarian power to violate any law, whether previously nullified by signing statement or not.

and so on

Each of the above violations constitutes an independent, simple, clear, and complete case for impeachment of both Bush and Cheney (Both of them because they both promote the fascist fantasy of a unitary authoritarian executive). By "complete" I mean that staffers will find all the materials needed to make the case in the public record and that there are plenty of witnesses like Alberto Mora (general counsel of the United States Navy thru Jan 2006), ready and willing to testify.

We the People "own" the nation. Members of Congress, who we empowered and charged with the duty of evicting (impeaching) such trespassers, are refusing to act. They are allowing Bush and Cheney to claim "ownership" of unconstitutional power under the old adage, "possession is 9/10ths of the law." (An adage that is grounded in common law.)

Their refusal has created a national crisis graver than any natural disaster or social ill. It is bigger than any international crisis. By tolerating the intolerable, they are surrendering our capacity to recover from disaster with humanity, solve our common problems in ways that reflect our common values, and serve as a force for good in the world. When the good will of the American people is cut out of the loop, no peoples, not our fellow Americans, not other nations, can look to us for help.

Surrendering your property to squatters without a fight is insanity, but that insanity doesn't compare to the magnitude of the insanity of surrendering a nation without a fight. But that is precisely what Members of Congress are doing when they say that the immediate impeachment of Bush and Cheney can't, won't, or shouldn't happen.

Attention all Members of the House:

Your oath is a individual oath; your duty an individual duty. Pick a charge, draft a set of articles, introduce them, and call on your colleagues to hold impeachment hearings to make the case for those articles (or some other set -- there are so many high crimes to choose from). Each day that you refuse to defend the Constitution by initiating the "eviction" process is another day of complicity in the fascist take over of our constitutional democracy.

While some of you may choose to be party to the treasonous campaign to consolidate unconstitutional powers in the executive, a vast majority of you know that no president -- not Bush, not Cheney, not McCain, not Hillary, not anybody -- can be allowed to claim unlimited power to "protect us."

We gave you, and only you of all our constitutional officers, the power to initiate the ONLY process that can remove the trespassers.

Redeem yourselves today. Act. Open your mouth. Accuse. Pick any one of the charges and Impeach. Call on Members of the Senate to evict, as they must to uphold the principle that government power can only be derived from the consent of the governed (the single moral tenet on which the Constitution, and therefore the nation, rests). If they fail to remove, impeach on the next charge, and if necessary, the next. Even if you believe it will be a charge of the light brigade, you are duty bound to charge, if only to establish a historical record that some Americans were willing to fight these horrors.

[solara]

1. Excellent post..k&r

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:


INVESTIGATE IMPEACH INDICT INCARCERATE :patriot:

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Damn! I love your title! This is so spot on!

[pat_k]

4. Yep. The "squatters" analogy is so apt, don't know why. . .

. . .it's not already "out there" (or at least that i've seen). Once it occurred to me, just had to add it to the Impeach Now "arsenal."

Hope it catches on. Could be an effective "meme."

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. You certainly gave it a good twist,

but I've been harping on the property rights issue since I've been here. I just had a comment about it this morning:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=538187&mesg_id=539625

[pat_k]

3. misplaced -- deleted

[porphyrian]

5. If only they would listen. - n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. I've been calling them squatters since the day they took over our White House. It always felt like

the right name for them.

[pat_k]

9. It's a great "meme." Thx for planting the seed. Wish I (and others) picked up on it sooner (nt)!

[RevCheesehead]

8. Senator Palpatine did the same thing.

And when Darth Sidious killed Mace Windu, he screamed "UNLIMITED POWER!"

Thus, a Republic becomes an Empire. :banghead:

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pat_k]

12. "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,. . .

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
--Declaration of Independence

The tragedy is that our Federal design provides the means by which we enforce our collective contract (i.e., the Constitution of the United States). The dictates and tenets of our Constitution are not "destructive of these ends" -- just the opposite. It is the failure of the representatives we elected to our Congress -- the constitutional officers we empowered and charged with the duty of defending our Constitution against attacks from within the Halls of Power -- that has created the current crisis.

Members of Congress failed us yesterday; they are failing us today; but it is in our power to change that tomorrow. We are not up against some abstract "system." It is the people to whom we have delegated certain powers and charged with certain duties who drive that "system." Those officials are first and foremost just people, and people can be reached (or if they prove unreachable, tossed out and replaced with people who know the meaning of an oath).

[Senator]

11. K&R