The Case for Impeachment

"On December 18 of last year, Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D., Mich.) introduced into the House of Representatives a resolution inviting it to form "a select committee to investigate the Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment." Although buttressed two days previously by the news of the National Security Agency's illegal surveillance of the American citizenry, the request attracted little or no attention in the press—nothing on television or in the major papers, some scattered applause from the left-wing blogs, heavy sarcasm on the websites flying the flags of the militant right. The nearly complete silence raised the question as to what it was the congressman had in mind, and to whom did he think he was speaking?"

Indeed, who in fact was even listening? The silence on this report, and total lack of any calls for action aside from bloggers, is truely shameful. As regular readers here know, I've tossed around the link to that report a number of times myself, frustrated at never hearing it mentioned in Congress or the mainstream media. When I first posted Rep. Conyers' Iraq Report, a few days after release, I hadn't read it yet, so I made no comment. The post I made just prior to it, was on CensureBush.org , a website created in response to legislation by the same Congressman Conyers, calling for censure of both Bush and Cheney for their failure to come clean on the Downing Street Memos. That too has faded into a great big nothing. Ater reading major parts of the Iraq report, I posted Revisiting Congressman Conyers' Iraq Report where I was really pissed at the silence.

Since then I've posted those links a number of times, and regardless of any mention of it on the web, it still remains a subject that appears to be completely non-existent in the mainstream. I had no love at all for Clinton, but it was amazing how much effort went into his impeachment for doing as little as cheating on his wife. All the Congressional attention and all the media attention that went into his infidelities, something that should never have wasted so much of our time, was an example of just how petty our politicians can be. as well as how much they can accomplish if they put their minds to it. Yet, when evidence arises as to what I consider, treasonous offenses by the Whitehouse, not a damn thing comes of it. A man who screws around on his wife gets dealt with, but a man who continually breaks his oath to defend and protect the Constitution, because he considers it's just a goddamn piece of paper, gets to subvert everything the people once believed in, and get away with it unscathed. Even with his low approval ratings, which is a clear sign the public would support action against a runaway Presidency, they still take no action because we're currently under one-party rule. If both parties held relatively equal power, Bush would've been out on his ass before he could even try to run for a second term. In fact, I doubt he would've been awarded his first term.

The danger here is all the precedents his administration has set. With no legitimate attempts to put a stop to any of his lies and manipulations, they will stand, and be built upon by every future President, no matter the party. Once an authority gains a power, it can only be removed forcibly. And for the good of the nation and the world, it should be removed by political force, otherwise......well let's just hope the politicians do their duty, before citizens are forced to act.

Yes, the silence still pisses me, but I will tell you exactly why nothing's been done. I blame the lack of action on this, not on those in the majority party who are blocking all attempts at regaining Constitutional rule by law, but directly on the doorstep of Conyers himself. That's right, the guy who gathered the goods. Remember the date of the reports' release, it was December 18, right at the end of the year when all the others were hurrying to settle all the issues they'd put off till the last minute, before going on holiday vacation. It was the wrong time to bring out such a report. Had he waited just one month later and introduced it after the holiday, it would've gotten far more attention. Though I was glad to see it at the time, I knew the timing was wrong. Politicians who were interested, would be distracted by the mad rush to push through all their pet pork projects and nonsense legislations that they love to sneak through when nobody's looking. The media were already distracted by that bullshit War on Christmas, and the rest of us were distracted by holiday cheer.


So, yes, here it is again, the Iraq Report. One of these days, someone just might do something about it.