It's becoming more and more clear to me that the Bush Administration, in violation of their sworn oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, fully intends a takeover of the United States government.
The Bush Administration has done so many illegal and unethical acts that they can be grouped into categories.
President Bush has invented his own judicial system and politicized the Justice Department:
- We have civil and military judicial systems in place which are perfectly adequate to prosecute people that we captured in Afghanistan and Iraq. These systems worked just fine during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam war and the first Gulf war. But suddenly, the Bush Administration wants its own special judicial system, the rules of which it makes up, and over which there is no oversight.
- The 2006 Military Commissions Act allows the Bush Administration and the Administration alone, to declare anyone to be an enemy combatant. Once you are declared to be an enemy combatant, you are not entitled to habeas corpus, the right to face one's accusers in a court of law.
- The Justice Department, under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales fired US District Attorneys and replaced them with people who happen to agree with the Bush administration's political agenda.
President Bush ignores laws which is a clear violation of the constitution and of his oath of office:
- On April 20, 2004, President Bush famously said, "any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires—a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.” By December, 2005, the Bush Administration admitted to breaking the law by secretly spying on American citizens without subpoenas but insisted Bush has the power to do so, in spite of Bushes earlier admission that such action would be illegal.
In effect, the Bush Administration believes that it need not be bound by any law it doesn't like.
Bush has waged a campaign to marginalize Congress and limit its ability to carry out its Constitutional duty of oversight of the Executive branch:
- The White House has stated that neither the it nor the Justice Department nor is obligated to comply with Congressional subpoenas related to the political firings of US Attorneys.
- President Bush uses "signing statements" to ignore laws he doesn't like or interpret them in any way he wants which is always different than what Congress intended.
- Last week, the White House denied Congressman Defazio's request, to review highly classified documents that would outline the Administration's plans for running the government during a national emergency. Defazio sits on the Homeland security Committee and is entitled to review such documents. "Maybe people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right" DeFazio said.
He has created a military unit especially to operate on US soil and given himself the authority to freeze the assets of citizens and/or impose martial law.
- In 2002, the government created the secretive Northern Command. It is an operational command inside the US.
- According to a 2005 article by William Arkin, who writes for the Washington Post and Global Research, a top secret Pentagon operation called Granite Shadow "...allows for emergency military operations in the United States without civilian supervision or control".
- In February of 2006 the Pacific News Service reported that "A Halliburton subsidiary has just received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide "temporary detention and processing capabilities." On US soil, not in some foreign country.
- The John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, passed by Congress in 2006 gives Bush the power to institute martial law in the US at any time he decides to do so.
- On July 17th, 2007, the President issued an executive order that would block the assets of anyone in the US. All it takes is for the Secretaries of Defense, State, and the Treasury, all of whom are controlled by the President, to decide that your assets should be blocked. There is no recourse, no warrant served, no charges filed.
So many things the Bush Administration has done could be classified as "odd". Why in the world would a President of the United States so clearly ignore the Constitution that he is sworn to uphold and insist that simply being President gives him the power to do whatever he wants to do? And why is he strangely unconcerned that his approval ratings have plummeted? On the face of it, it makes no sense that a democratically elected president would do such things.
But I do have an explanation for his inexplicable behavior, thanks to my experience working in the business world for many years.
From time to time, I found myself in situations where a company would allow an ongoing situation to exist that was contrary to the company's goals. I began to think of these situations as "odd" activities because appeared to harm the company. Often the behavior or procedure was acknowledged by management who seemingly understood it was hurting the company, yet it allowed it to continue. The first few times I witnessed "odd" activities, I drove myself nuts trying to figure out why any company would allow such situations to go uncorrected. One day, I happened to discover that the particular "odd" activity was in fact allowing the company to perpetrate a very unethical activity from which it made a lot of money. From then on, every time I encountered an "odd" activity, I was usually able to discover who benefited from it. Sometimes it was the company, sometimes it was someone in management and the company was in fact harmed.
The key to explaining anyone's behavior, is to figure out what payoff they are receiving in return for the behavior. Payoff can mean money, but it can also be in the form of power or an emotional benefit.
The payoffs from Bush's behavior do not seem to match his role as President. For example, Bush has made a tremendous power grab in trying to set up the imperial presidency and marginalizing Congress. Increased power for the President appears to be the payoff. But if he were to succeed, the next President, who could be a Democrat, would inherit those new powers. It's puzzling that President Bush would put new Presidental powers in place that could easily be used to undo everything he's done by the next President - unless he has reason to think that there will be no next President or that the next President will agree with him politically.
If you look at the Bush administration's behavior to date as steps in setting up a dictatorship or a one-party system, what he's done so far begins to make a lot of sense.
A dictator:
- Lives in a world where he is never accountable for anything he does
- Makes up his own laws
- Can freely ignore or even eliminate any elected body.
- Appoints only people that are loyal to him to head various departments
- Isn't too concerned about his approval ratings as long as he believes he cannot be removed from power
- Controls the people by economic means (freezing assets) and by using the military (Northern Command) and imposes martial law if people threaten to become unruly
- makes up his own judicial system to and uses it to spy on people or search them without any form of subpoena or other court oversight
- eliminates habeas corpus so that people he doesn't like may be held indefinitely without charge in facilities built especially for that purpose so they cannot threaten him in any way.
Sounds a lot like what we've seen so far, doesn't it?
If President Bush is determined to become a dictator or set up a one-party system, here are things I would expect him to do:
- Stage a "terrorist attack" on US soil. It wouldn't have to be an actual attack as happened on 9/11, but it would have to appear real to US citizens. The US mainstream media can be counted on to report as fact anything the Bush Administration says is true. Once the mainstream media puts it on tv, citizens all over America would probably believe it.
- Repeat that there is a an imminent threat. (See Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, claim that he has a "gut feeling" that there will be a terrorist attack on the US soon.)
- Repeat lies that promote anything he wants to do such as the lie that Iraq or Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11.
- Ignore facts that do not help him to reach his goals such as the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists were Saudi Arabian and NOT ONE of them was from Iraq.
- Set up a military operation under his sole control ready to impose martial law as soon as it was ordered to do so.
- Set up a justice system separate from any existing system that conforms to any rules I make up.
- Put laws in place allowing him to detain anyone permanently without charges and without access to any court I don't control and without access to council.
- Eliminate habaes corpus.
- Set up detention facilities to permanently house people I don't like.
As you can see, the only thing he has not accomplished on this list is the staging of a real or mock terrorist attack on US soil.
If you think that a dictatorship could never happen in the foremost democracy in the free world, consider this from Wikipedia (emphasis added): "Modern dictators have usually come to power in times of emergency. Frequently they have seized power by coup d'etat, but some, most notably Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany achieved office as head of government by legal means (election or appointment), and once in office gained additional extraordinary powers."
The Wikipedia description of how Mussolini and Hitler became dictators sounds a lot like the path President Bush is following right now. It is critical that we be on our guard and highly sensitive to everything the Bush administration does - especially if what he does is in conflict with his sworn duty as President. Now is the time to insist that Congress use every means at its disposal to hold the Bush Administration accountable for every illegal act it has committed.
Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Never were his words more true than now.
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