As published on OpEdNews
“Exit polls reported that voters by a margin of 62-33 percent voted on national, not local, issues. They voted for four, closely-bunched national reasons: corruption, terrorism, the economy, and Iraq. By 57-41 percent they disapproved of Bush’s handling of Iraq. They didn’t give a damn about taxes or “values” or local pork.”
from: A Bulk Rate on Printing Subpoenas? By David Swanson
There can be no denying now that America’s citizens are in strong agreement that a drastic change of direction is absolutely needed and that governmental corruption is the foremost issue that must addressed immediately. The years of the Presidency of George W. Bush will be remembered as a pathetic display of pervasive incompetence, corruption and cronyism at best, and as a treasonous horror pushing us to the precipice of the downfall of this glorious Republic at worst as multiple investigations commence in January.
The leaders have already stepped up. They ran for office – and many won, they made phone calls, they went door-to-door, they petitioned, they wrote their editors, they debated with their friends, they protested, they blogged, they fought voter suppression and election fraud. They voted. Many broke with their political party in order to do so. And they prayed.
The leaders, true American citizen patriots who sooner or later saw clearly through the smokescreen of the corporate media, the partisan hack ideologues and the religious hypocrites – are back in charge of the nation.
The leaders: Christians, Muslims, Atheists, Jews, Buddhists, et al – who saw through the “Christian” facade of the Radical Republican Christian Right wolves – the wolves who stole their way into power in the bloodless coup of 2000 and have been covertly pursuing their war profiteering, citizen suppressing agenda while lying to, terrifying and distracting us for six ardous years. The true leaders have fired the false ones, or at least many of their enablers and abetters. That was the best we could do – for now.
The leaders – the people – are back in power. To those that led, thank you. To those that didn’t:
Follow, or get the hell out of the way.
We are taking our nation back.
Tuesday’s election was ultimately a scathing, pervasive indictment by the majority of voting Americans of the incredibly misguided, corrupt, immoral leadership of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their entire Administration.
A mandate, indeed.
When I slid my ballot into the voting machine at McRae Park in Minneapolis on Tuesday, the number “911” came up. I was the nine hundred and eleventh voter at my precinct polling place. A coincidence to be sure, but 911 represents two things:
1). An emergency call. This election was an emergency. The health, perhaps even the continued existence of our nation a we know it was at risk. It was the most important election of my lifetime – maybe of our nation’s 230 year history.
2). 9/11. The events of September 11th, 2001 provided the justification for a comprehensive assault on the “inalienable” freedoms, liberties and identifiable character of Americans as codified in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights as well as our commitment to the Geneva Accords, the Nuhremberg Principles, World Peace, and finally the innocent civilians of Iraq.
The events of September 11th, 2001 also were used to justify the theft of billions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury as funneled into Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown & Root and other “CheneyCo” and “CheneyCrony” bank accounts as well as billions of dollars in resources rightfully owned by the Iraqi people.
The events of 9/11 could not have possibly taken place without inside help. That isn’t conspiracy theory, that is fact.
The planes could not have possibly gotten through to their targets without a “stand down” order – possibly by the same man who arranged long before to have most of our SAC fighters out of range for “exercises”.
The towers in New York City could not have fallen as they did except as controlled demolitions. See “911 Mysteries: Demolitions”. The inner core verticle columns must have been severed. There is ample evidence from photographs of angle cuts on the columns, video footage of dozens of “squibs” as well as traces of thermite found at the scene.
Parts of Flight 93 could not have been scattered over seven miles without exploding in mid-air. Onboard bomb? Surface-to-Air missile? We need to know.
Cell phones from Flight 93 could not have reached family members on the ground. Ever tried? How far do you have to be from a tower before you lose a signal? How often do you lose your call when transferring from tower to tower? How quickly do transfers occur at 500 m.p.h.?
Treasonous bastards could not have nearly stolen America from us without 9/11: their “New Pearl Harbor”, so conveniently occuring ten months after the White House infestation began.
BushCo. would not have suppressed the 9/11 investigation for 411 days if they didn’t have something to hide.
The first order of business for the new Congress in January absolutely must be pervasive investigations into the events of 9/11 along with pre-war lies, FISA spying violations, cronyism contracts, billions of dollars missing in Iraq, connections with ENRON’s theft of California’s millions, torture and other war crimes, etc., etc., etc.
It is a brand new day. Let’s get to work. We’ve got a House of Representatives we must pressure. They have criminals to investigate, indict, convict and impeach. If they don’t, they must go out in the second Wave in 2008 no matter what their party affiliation.
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The finest piece of writing I have come across this week:
A Deep, Deep Breath
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 09 November 2006
I will sew no silken seam on a fine May mornin’,
You can bide your time ’til your time runs out,
So take this as fair warning …
– “Shepherd Lad,” The Battlefield Band
Let us be absolutely clear on what has taken place. This was not simply a midterm election, not just a historic running of the table, not just a scathing repudiation of virtually everything the Bush administration has stood for since they swaggered into Washington six long years ago.
It was so very much more than this.
The back of the “Neo-conservative Revolution” has been broken, perhaps not for all time – simply because nothing truly evil ever really dies – but for a good long while. The ideology foisted upon an unwilling public by the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Ledeen and the rest, the ideology that has given us slaughter in Iraq and a ravaged reputation abroad, has been exposed and eviscerated. The Project for the New American Century, and all that was spawned from it, has been relegated, for now, to the dustbin of history.
As unutterably massive as this is, it still does not capture the entirety of the event.
There are many things that make the United States of America unique, but one stands out above all. Every other nation on Earth has within it cultural, religious or historical threads, often stretching back hundreds if not thousands of years, which bind its people together.
When you see the Orangemen march in Ireland, when you see the Serbs mark the anniversary of a massacre that happened 900 years ago, when you see the British celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, you are witnessing an echo out of time that, for good or ill, silently reminds the people of those countries that they have a shared heritage which stretches back dozens of generations.
The United States stands apart from this. We are an invention, the product of an idea, the children of a dream. We come from everywhere, and though our history is stained with far too much blood shed during the unfolding of our own history, the sum total is an amalgamation of the best and worst of the human experience. Nothing like this has ever existed anywhere, ever.
All we have to tie together this amazing and confusing experiment are a few old pieces of paper. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the only truths that each and every citizen of this country have completely in common. They are our unifying theme, our organizing principle, and we share this together because the basic idea was, and remains, that these belong to us and defend us and set us, now and forever, free.
It was not always so, and remains today a dream unfulfilled, but in the end, that was the genius of it all. These three documents, and the ideology behind them, were created to be self-improving entities. Much remains to be done to move along the “more perfect Union” Lincoln spoke of, and that work will never be completed … and that is the point. These things are ours, and they are all that we truly have to bind us together, and our purpose as citizens is to bend our will toward the creation of that more perfect Union.
Before the sun came up on Wednesday, that shared heritage had been under a savage, unrelenting attack by men and women who have no respect for the idea and the dream which makes us all that we are as a people. The right to a trial has been shattered, the right to stand before your accuser has been removed, the right to be secure in home and person from governmental intrusion has been swept by the boards, and all by a president who once referred to the Constitution as “just a God damned piece of paper.”
These cancers have not been cut out simply because of an election, of course. But the first, vital step towards repairing our shared heritage was taken on Tuesday night, simply because we have at long last returned to the basic Constitutional requirement of checks and balances within this government. No longer will the best interests of the people be slapped aside by people who have no patience for the process that was laid out by wiser and better men. Some logs have been thrown in the road, and for now, a real chance for healing has been gifted to us by the very democratic institutions these people would shun and shatter. The power of the vote, so often maligned and disdained, has been restored.
A more perfect Union, indeed.
Much remains to be done. The departure of Donald Rumsfeld from the Pentagon will not heal Iraq, nor will it bring back to life the soldiers and civilians who have died thanks to the hubris of others. The cornering of Dick Cheney has not sapped him of his power. George W. Bush remains an incurious front man whose very existence in that seat of power will stand as a constant threat to the safety and security of this nation and the world entire.
“U.S. envoy tells Iraqis election won’t change policy,” reads the Associated Press headline from Wednesday. That, in and of itself, says all we need to know about what remains to be done. For the first time in far too long, however, an opportunity has arrived to do more than scream into the thunderstorm and damn the rain.
The real work begins now.
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn’t Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition Is Silence. His newest book, House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America’s Ravaged Reputation, will be available this winter from PoliPointPress.
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“Chairman John Conyers Jr., Chairman Henry Waxman. Those titles will prove to be the most important outcome of yesterday’s elections, even if the Dems get the Senate too. It’s investigation and impeachment time. Vice President Cheney has already announced his plans to “probably” refuse to obey a subpoena from Congress. Democrats need to be preparing for that crisis now. And I don’t mean just elected Democrats. I mean you and everyone you know who has the sanity to no longer call themselves Republicans”
“Numerous national organizations are forming a coalition to advance impeachment through multiple strategies, and this is the moment to do it. Leaders of these groups will announce their plans in Philadelphia, across from Independence Hall, on Saturday, November 11th, as detailed here: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/impeach”
From: A Bulk Rate on Printing Subpoenas?
By David Swanson
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 08 November 2006
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Hypocrite of the year – NEOCON core member Richard Perle attempts to rewrite his personal history:
“I think if I had been delphic, and had seen where we are today, and people had said, ‘Should we go into Iraq?,’ I think now I probably would have said, ‘No, let’s consider other strategies….’ Could we have managed that threat by means other than a direct military intervention? Well, maybe we could have.”
– Richard Perle, former chair of the Defense Policy Board, and one of the key advocates of the invasion of Iraq. (Source: Vanity Fair)
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