Impeach Bush

Note: The following post is something I wrote in January 2006. It was written when I became so disgusted by the the Bush administration that I could no longer keep silent. I am proud of what I wrote, and I cannot think of a better way to start my blog.

Before Bush was placed into office by a biased Supreme Court, I was politically an independent. While the country seemed to move right, behind Bush, I swung a hard left. Whereas before, I thought neither Republicans nor Democrats were deserving of my devotion because of their similar and different flaws. However, seeing Bush put into power and seeing the damage he has wrought since then has made me realize how important it is to support the Democrats now. I may not agree with everything they say and do, but until we change the way our government works they are our only hope of fighting back against the Bush administration. 2006 is a very important election year because it will essentially be our last chance to vote for and achieve a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate while Bush is still in office. Which means it will be our last chance to impeach Bush. You may say impeaching Bush is crazy, but he has done a lot of things that I consider to be a lot worse than what they impeached Clinton for. Here's an abbreviated list:

-Bush ignored Richard Clarke's warnings about Al Qaeda at the beginning of his presidency.

-Bush pushed the disastrous No Child Left Behind program, but did not push for it to be properly funded. Schools and students all over America suffer because of it.

-Bush ignored the Aug 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing that warned of a terrorist attack from Osama Bin Laden

-Terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 occurred on Bush's watch.

-Bush promised to go after and capture Osama Bin Laden, then dropped the ball when Bin Laden was cornered in Afghanistan so that he could start a war in Iraq. He BROKE his promise.

-Bush started an unnecessary and ILLEGAL war with Iraq.

-Bush LIED about Iraq by saying they had Weapons of Mass Destruction, that they had a connection to Al Qaeda, that they sought uranium from Africa. He lied so that the American public would support his illegal because he knew the public would not support the war otherwise.

-By going to war in Iraq, Bush turned the compassion the world had for us after 9-11 into hatred. Only a complete idiot could have done that.

-The Bush Administration neglected to adequately provide armor for troops and their vehicles.

-Bush refused to send in enough troops into Iraq, which went against the advice of top military officials. He also disbanded the Iraqi military, which also went against the advice of top military officials. (He basically told all the Iraqi troops that they were fired and that they should take their weapons with them. That essentially created a huge population of angry, unemployed, and ARMED Iraqis. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!)

-Bush and his administration LIED about the cost of the war and reconstruction in Iraq. One official said that taxpayers would only have to pay ONE BILLION DOLLARS towards the reconstruction effort and Iraqi oil would pay for the rest. Currently, there is an oil shortage in Iraq. Taxpayers have spent about TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY BILLION DOLLARS in Iraq with no end in sight.

-Bush and his administration LIED when they said we would be greeted as liberators. Instead, almost three years after the start of the war, the Iraqi insurgency continues to kill American troops and other Iraqis. Iraq has since become a magnet, a breeding ground, and the top training ground for terrorists.

-Bush and the Republican-led Congress passed tax cuts (which mostly went to the richest of the rich Americans) during a TIME OF WAR and a time when the economy had taken a dive.

-Bush allowed companies like Halliburton to profit off the reconstruction effort in Iraq instead of allowing Iraqi companies employ unemployed Iraqis to reconstruct their own country. The unemployment rate in Iraq is about 50%. (Gee, I wonder why the insurgents have so much free time to blow up our troops.)

-Bush has mismanaged practically every aspect of the war and reconstruction in Iraq, and our troops are DYING because off his mistakes and the war profiteering of his rich, corporate friends. How long will it be before Bush is responsible for the deaths of more Americans than Osama Bin Laden?

-The Bush administration outed Valerie Wilson a CIA operative for political retribution against her husband Joe Wilson because he disagreed with the administration's LIE about Iraq seeking uranium in Africa. They outdo a CIA agent to cover their LIE. They committed a TREASONOUS act to cover up that LIE. Then they LIED about committing the TREASONOUS act that covered up their LIE. They CONTINUE to LIE about the TREASONOUS act that covered up their LIE.

-Bush and his administration probably hoped that a free Iraq would lead to cheaper oil and major profits for their oil company friends. Well, they only got that half-right. Instead, oil prices skyrocketed. Oil companies still reaped major profits, but their profits came from the high prices American citizens had to pay at the pump.

-Bush and the Republican-led Congress passed a confusing drug prescription benefit program for Medicare and LIED about how much it would cost. They disallowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices.

-Bush came into power with a budget surplus and managed to turn it into the biggest budget deficit this country has ever seen. Again, only a complete idiot...

-During Bush's presidency so far, the U.S. has borrowed more money than during all the other presidencies COMBINED, and there is still three years left in his second term. He claims to be a fiscal conservative, but I have yet to see any proof that he is.

-During his first term, Bush was the first president to have NOT created one NET job since Herbert Hoover. There was actually a job deficit over his first four years.

-Bush and the Republican-led Congress, refuse to have an oversight committee to protect taxpayers from war profiteering by companies like Halliburton.

-Bush and the Republican-led Congress, continue to push tax cuts for the rich while cutting programs for the poor like Medicare, Medicaid, Student Aid, and Food Stamps. Bush is the opposite of Robin Hood; he robs the poor to give to the rich. He still claims to be a Christian despite this.

-Bush refused to testify under oath to the 9-11 commission. Why? He probably wanted to avoid a perjury charge after he saw the trouble that Clinton got for a similar charge.

-Bush has chipped away at environmental regulations for the benefit of his corporate friends.

-Bush refuses to acknowledge the threat of Global Warming despite the fact that glaciers all over the world are melting. (He is probably hoping his ranch in Texas will become beachfront property.)

-Bush has taken more vacation days than any other president (since they started keeping track), and he did that in his first FIVE years.

-While Bush was on one of his many vacations, Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans. Federal response was inadequate and slow to say the least. Bush didn't think that one of the worst disasters in American history was important enough to end his vacation immediately. He left the emergency management in the hands of one of his unqualified, appointed cronies, Michael Brown.

-Just about everything Bush has done seems to be based on greed, laziness or both with little or no regard for the poor or even the middle class. He is a spoiled, rich kid who never had to work for a living, so why should he care about the rest of us?

Bush claims to be a Christian, but I don't see anything Christian about the things I just listed. He claims to be a conservative, but our country has gone further and faster into debt than ever before. Bush is the most evil and corrupt president this country has ever seen (including Nixon). Despite this, at least 40% of the country still support him because either they still view him as a Christian (despite all evidence to the contrary) or because they are making money off of the debt our country is incurring.

This latest scandal (eavesdropping, spying on Americans, violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, violation of the 4th Amendment, call it what you will) is the last straw for me and probably the last straw for enough people to support an impeachment.

For those of you who do not yet support impeaching Bush, let me be absolutely clear about why he should be impeached. GEORGE W. BUSH BROKE THE LAW AND VIOLATED THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES BY ORDERING THE NSA TO SPY ON AMERICANS WITHOUT A WARRANT. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. He broke the law and admitted to it on national television. He and his administration will make legal arguments to defend this action, but it is all garbage. The fact that Bush broke the law is as clear as black and white no matter what they say on the Fox News Channel (which has no right to use the word "news" in their name), and he should be impeached.

Unfortunately, impeachment will not happen while we have a House and Senate controlled and led by Republicans who are just as corrupt as Bush. Republicans in Washington D.C. have taken corruption to a new level. Here are a few examples:

-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is under indictment for money laundering and under investigation for connections to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, taking bribes, accepting trips, and stopping legislation that would prevent forced labor, forced prostitution, and forced abortion in the U.S. protectorate island Saipan.

-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is under investigation for illegal stock trading.
-I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the Vice President’s chief of staff, is under indictment for obstruction of justice and making false statements.

-Karl Rove, the President’s deputy chief of staff and friend, is under investigation.

-Sen. Conrad Burns is under investigation for taking bribes from Abramoff.

-Rep. Bob Ney is under investigation for taking bribes from Abramoff.

-Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham plead guilty to taking bribes from a defense contractor.

-David Safavian, the top official of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, resigned just before he was arrested and indicted for obstruction of justice and making false statements.

-Lobbyist Jack Abramoff plead guilty to charges of bribery and conspiracy in a deal in which he will be working for the prosecution in their investigation of all the people in Congress he bribed.

-Michael Scanlon, former aide to DeLay and colleague of Abramoff, plead guilty to charges of bribery and conspiracy.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and it has definitely corrupted the Republicans over the last ten years. Republicans of today differ from the Republicans during the days of a Democratic-led Congress. Then, they were not in control of Congress, and they were able to point to the corruption of the Democrats in power and say that they would fix it. However, instead of getting rid of corruption in Congress, they not only became corrupt themselves, but they became far more corrupt than the Democrats.

That is why it is important for us to support the Democrats this year, and vote as many of them as we can into office. We need to do so overwhelmingly. We do not want questionable election results, election fraud theories, or recounts. We need indisputable vote tallies that put Democrats into as many congressional seats as possible. Remember: A vote for a Republican this November (any Republican, even the "RINO"s) is another vote for the Iraq War, pollution, global warming, corporate welfare, tax cuts for the rich, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, cuts to student aid, cuts to programs for the poor, and (worst of all) George W Bush.

In 2006, vote for Democrats and for impeachment.