ADIOS FROM WATERBOARD CENTRAL

And

GOODBYE

Won’t

Be

Soon

Enough!

THE UNITED STATES DOESN’T TORTURE, but George W. Bush (who said those words)

SURE DID.

He tortured us for eight years.

He torched the Constitution.

He unnecessarily torched Iraq.

The Bush administration will end its reign of torture, and finally exit Washington, D.C.

Until Jeb Bush goes there.

The Clintons?

Well, they’ll be in Washington for a little while longer, until Chelsea enters politics.

Who do you want to be the next president?

IT’S THE OIL STUPID!

***

Time is short, but even at this late date, it would be a simple matter to impeach the president on some issues. As several of Friday’s witnesses pointed out, President Bush has essentially dared Congress to act, admitting that he openly violated the FISA law—a felony, and openly admitting that he has refused to enact laws passed by the Congress, claiming a power—unitary executive authority—not even mentioned in the Constitution. He has openly admitted to having known about, and approved, “enhanced interrogation techniques” devised by his subordinates—techniques like waterboarding which clearly violate the Geneva Conventions and US law. No hearings would be required to establish these high crimes and misdemeanors. They could simply be voted on by an Impeachment Committee and sent to the full House for a vote.

Even if there were no time for a Senate trial, the simple act of impeaching the president for one or more abuses of power would serve notice on future presidents that future such abuses would not be tolerated. Failure to do so, and allowing this administration to leave office un-impeached, would send the opposite message: that Congress is no longer a co-equal branch of government, but is merely a consultative body, at best, and that a president is in effect a dictator.

That Pelosi buckled and permitted a hearing on impeachable crimes by the Bush/Cheney administration is a major victory for the impeachment movement, but it must not be the end of the line. Impeachment activists need to now redouble their efforts to make Congress do its Constitutional duty, and initiate a formal impeachment proceeding.

As former Republican representative Bob Barr, now the Libertarian candidate for president, told Friday’s hearing, “We had a nuclear clock during the Cold War. In the ‘90s we had a debt clock. Now we have a Constitution Clock.”

From A Victory and a Challenge

The Impeachment Hearing

By DAVE LINDORFF

July 30, 2008

www.counterpunch.com