The Steady Destruction of Democracy

A lot of secrecy has surrounded the most controversial presidential administration, woefully, the first ever to be appointed by the ‘Supreme Court,’ that has led to the serious degradation of America and those who live here. The closer these eight years of hell caused by the ‘Supreme Court’ come to ending, the more corruption conducted by the Bush Administration comes to light — corruption justified by immense delusions, flawed rationale and illegality.

Why our elected officials in Washington continue doing little or nothing to stop or prevent it raises serious issues pertaining to level of corruption in Congress. Both the Justice System and the Judicial System have shown blatantly gross derelections of duty, condoning and obstructing justice while contributing to the downfall of this once great country.

Corporate media has also neglected to perform their responsibilities and duties, complicitly allowing grossly illicit activities by the Bush administration to go unnoticed and unreported. America and the Middle East have paid heavy prices for events that never should have happened in the first place. Large corporations — that in all actuality, have run this country for years — continue getting greedier and richer while continuously screwing those who have attributed to their wealth and success.

Below you will find examples of political corruption, delusional leadership geared towards trying to convince people that giving government unlimited power with no oversight is in their best interests, a Vice President that actually believes he’s impune, political corruption in the military, an errant Supreme Court ‘Justice’ who honestly believes torture is ok, and a few other tidbits regarding political corruption, all caused by a terrorist attack that could have been prevented.

9/11 Could Have Been Prevented

Former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta testified to the 9/11 commission that Cheney watched what was later identified by the government as flight 77 approach the Pentagon from many miles out but ordered the military to stand down and do nothing. The perfect excuse to justify a ‘global war on terror,’ and the perfect excuse to justify delusional reasoning and trying to appoint yourself with unlimited powers. Not only is it immoral, it’s highly illegal. For anyone who actually believes the U.S. government will not harm and kill their own, see the memo (PDF) referring to Operation Northwoods from George Washington University or this article from WantToKnow.info.

Douglas Feith, one of the key ‘war on terror’ architect’s, admitted in a recently published book that the so-called war on terror is a hoax — starting right after the attacks of 9/11 that the Bush administration did nothing to stop or prevent — the goal has always been to create a “regime change” and instability in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Lebanon to protect Israel.

Even Newsweek finally picked up the fact that “Al-Qaeda” is largely a myth designed to generate “billions for government contractors,” and the Bush administration has never intended to destroy Al-Qaeda. The CIA created Al-Qaeda to further their intent of fueling a never-ending war. The Bush administration has intentionally overblown both Al-Qaeda and the ‘war on terror’ in order to further their illicit agenda. Bush’s family and Osama bin Laden’s family have a long history as well.

There are entirely too many coincidences from that fateful day on 9/11/01, one of which involved five war games and terror drills being conveniently conducted on that very day. One war game involved running the simulation of a plane crashing into a building. More ‘fake terror drills‘ are being run, giving the Bush administration more opportunities for false justification. As noted by Michel Chossudovsky, “revealing the lies” on 9/11 perpetuates the “big lie.” Another coincidence involves an early warning received by Willie Brown — he was one of more than a few — not to fly that day. There are many ‘coincidences.’

Governmental Secrecy and Media Complicity

A lot of the lies from the ‘official’ version of what happened have come unraveled. The Bush administration has functioned primarily on secrecy since being appointed to the presidency. Corporate media attempts to discredit the blatantly obvious facts of 9/11 becaue they were so complicit in keeping Bush administration secrets, and in falsely and illegally leading this country to war.

An article from AlterNet explains how Governmental secrecy does not make us safer; it undermines the Constitution. An article from NiemanWatchdog.org explains why reporters should be writing about the emerging ‘secretocracy’ that threatens to profoundly alter our entire system of governance, neutering oversight efforts and marginalizing citizens. He advocates writing not just about the secrets we can uncover, but also about the information that has been denied us.

Corporate media aren’t the only ones being complicit with the Bush administration. The Congressional Democratic leadership,  particularly Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi — the latter of which continues to insist that impeachment of Bush is off the table — have done their share in aiding the most corrupt presidential administration in history.

Then again, given the penchants of the Bush administration for conducting illegal wiretaps and spying, as I’ve said a few times in the past, the fact that someone in a position of authority is being blackmailed by this administration would really come as no surprise.

“Torture Is Not Punishment”

Supreme Court Justice Scalia — one of the five Supreme Court Justices who appointed Bush in the 2000 presidential election, also known as Mr. “Get over it” — is now trying to say that torture is not punishment because torture is not meant to punish, only to elicit information, and he says his view is correct.

As noted by George Washington’s Blog, Scalia’s argument fails for several reasons, including the fact that torture does not generate useful information. The Washington Post had a report that cast doubt on the credibility of information obtained through torture. Prisoners who were not previously crazy ended up that way after being severly tortured and abused. The definition of torture also includes the word punishment.

Also noted by George Washington’s Blog: “By the way, anyone, no matter how high and mighty, who helps create, promote, or justify policies that violate the Geneva Convention is guilty of violating the War Crimes Act of 1996. See this, this, this, this, and this.

So you have not only failed to justify torture, sir, you have also opened yourself up to very serious charges. And see this.”

Obviously there is a reason Justice Scalia doesn’t talk to the press or make many public appearances. Every time he opens his mouth to justify condoning blatantly illegal war crimes, ignorance becomes self-evident. More detail regarding the torture can be found from Texas Citizens for Science and FireDogLake.

Military Justice Corrupted by Politics

The Washington Post also reported that Air Force Col. Morris Davis appeared at Guantanamo to argue, on behalf of a terrorism suspect, that the military justice system has been corrupted by politics and inappropriate influence from senior Pentagon officials. Under oath, Davis declared that he felt undue pressure to hurry cases along so the Bush administration could claim the system was working before political elections. Davis also spoke of an unethical decision by top military officials to allow the use of evidence obtained by coercive interrogation techniques.

Reuters reported that three other prosecutors quit the Guantanamo court in 2004 saying they thought the process was rigged to convict. The Pentagon plans to try as many as 80 of the 280 prisoners in Guantanamo on war crimes charges and 14 cases are currently pending. One case has been resolved since the United States began sending foreign captives to Guantanamo in 2002, and that case never went to court. It was resolved by plea bargaining.

Reuters also reported on a Pentagon legal adviser accused of improperly influencing the Guantanamo war crimes prosecutions, dictating which cases would be tried based on how likely they were to pique U.S. public interest. Some cases were rushed through in order to influence U.S. and Australian elections and prosecutors were pushed to file “sexy” cases to justify the existence of the widely criticized court. And the military wonders what would make a former Guantanamo detainee a suicide bomber…

“Public Should not Second-guess Government Actions”

Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff is busy trumpeting the need for President Bush to have more power…like the self-appointed powers Bush already bestowed upon himself aren’t enough, and the Bush administration hasn’t already broken enough laws or illegally ruined enough lives.

During a recent speech to the Heritage Foundation, Chertoff said the U.S. needs to have a ‘nonpoliticized, serious discussion’ while writing new laws to define the best way to combat terrorism, and that once laws are written, the public should not second-guess government actions and claim that federal officials are overstepping their authority. In his usual “gut feeling” way, Chertoff said if the public limits what the government can do, it must accept that the risk of terrorist attacks may increase, and if the public gives the government greater authorities, it should not criticize the government for using those authorities at a later date.

Okie Dokie. Chertoff’s speech comes at a time when another wide-ranging program that potentially assaults privacy rights is being unveiled — one in which the entire ‘intelligence’ community wants to monitor the nation’s computer networks. Daily Kos has an article detailing some of the potential problems — and Chertoff won’t answer questions from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees.

Elsewhere in the federal government, hundreds of U.S. Department of State — which conducts delicate, often secret, diplomatic relations with foreign countries — employee laptops are unaccounted for. As many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program.

A George Washington University Law School Professor reportedly discovered that since 2000, patent judges have been appointed by a government official without the constitutional power to do so. A short paper written by Professor John F. Duffy documents the problem that seems poised to undo thousands of patent decisions concerning claims worth billions of dollars.

Recently the U.S. Justice Department was banned from Wikipedia for deleting and rewriting entries — basically trying to change history by inducing others to believe their lies. On top of that, House Democratic leaders are (again) poised to sell out Americans by giving retroactive immunity to Telecoms who broke laws at the request of President Bush.

So, with all the corruption, stupidity and secrecy of the Bush administration — and believe me, there is soooo much more that could be blogged about, but in the interest of time, we’ll keep it short — Chertoff says the public should not second-guess government actions and claim that federal officials are overstepping their authority. With all due respect Mr. Chertoff, you are wrong. The disastrous results of the Bush administration these past seven plus years with no legal oversight are blatantly evident.

Cheney’s Claims of Impunity

Attempts by the Bush administration to absolve themselves of any responsibility from their illegal atrocities and disasters of the last seven plus years are becoming more desperate with each passing day. The Washington Post ran an article questioning how far Vice President Cheney will go to shield himself and his office from public scrutiny.

Last spring, Cheney asserted that the office of the Vice President wasn’t subject to executive-branch rules about classified information because they aren’t actually part of the executive-branch. Now his office is trying to argue that Cheney and his staff are completely immune from Congressional oversight.

Cheney’s lastest claim is in response to a House Judiciary Committee request (PDF) asking Vice Presidential Chief of staff David S. Addington to testify about his central role in developing the administration’s torture policies. Kathryn L. Wheelbarger, another Cheney lawyer, claims (PDF) that Congress lacks the constitutional power to regulate by a law when a Vice President communicates in the performance of the Vice President’s official duties.

Another asinine claim made by Wheelbarger includes “The Chief of Staff to the Vice President is an employee of the Vice President, and not the President, and therefore is not in a position to speak on behalf of the President.” Wheelbarger lied, not that it comes as any surprise. Addington is also an assistant to the President. Cheney’s office conveniently managed to omit Addington from the White House staff list submitted to Congress, but Addington isn’t on Cheney’s public Senate payroll.

Cheney and his lawyers are trying — in typical Bush administration fashion — to prolong the inevitable by attempting to keep illicit activites and crimes covered up by claiming ‘executive privilege.’ The Bush administration has relied heavily on ‘executive privilege’ and ‘national security’ to keep the crimes they’ve committed covered up.

The article by Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post does a great job explaining the ongoing assertions of the Bush administration’s resistance to oversight, and it covers several other issues as well. Definitely worth reading. More information can also be found from The Raw Story, Daily Kos and the Guardian UK.

The Government Must Be Held Accountable

If for some reason the delusional rationale of Cheney’s office was remotely true, it wouldn’t matter since Bush, Cheney and six other top officials illegally started the war and occupation of Iraq. Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith from the Center for Public Integrity published a study detailing at least 935 false statements made in the two years following 9/11 that were part of an orchestrated campaign of misinformation that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidely false pretenses.

There appears to be no end in sight for the illegally started war. Corporate media has purposely ignored or lied about — complicity that continues to this day — numerous deceitful actions of the Bush administration. Propaganda created by Bush and the Pentagon continues being produced attempting to once again, despite the lack of evidence, lie the nation to war with Iran.

The disaster known as the Bush administration has badly damaged — justifiably so, unfortunately — the world’s view of America. The lies used to trick America into believing we needed to invade Iraq is just one of the many reasons Bush and the rest of his administration should be in prison.

If it weren’t for the fact that too many innocent people have died and paid a heavy price due to the corruption of the Bush administration and those who have helped along the way, part of a speech given by Cheney at a reception for Oklahoma victory would be hilarious. Part of Cheney’s speech: “when the history is written, it’ll be said that we lived in a safer country, and a more hopeful world, because George Bush was President of these United States.” Highly unlikely.

Noted by FireDogLake: “Governments must be held accountable for their actions. And if the Congress and the Fourth Estate are incapable of doing so, then it is up to the public — through the power of the ballot box and repeated contact with elected officials to force the issue to the fore. The GOP’s repeated tactic has been to stall and prevent any meaningful oversight, putting party politics before the national interest, and to try and make any legitimate hearing of substance into as much of a bread and circuses farce as possible.”

So very true. This has gone on entirely too long and it’s time for it to stop. The Daily Kos is right: it’s time for “The You’ve Got Nothing To Hide Act of 2008.”

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