Your President Commits Felonies! (1/1/06)
by Dean Hartwell
Bad news comes in threes. Three recent events have made it clear that the United States public has more and more to worry about.
First, we found that the CIA has transferred terrorist suspects to secret detention camps in Eastern Europe. We should be alarmed – other nations could mistreat our citizens as retaliation. And, this action makes us no better than those whom we oppose.
Then, President Bush admitted to us that he based his decision to go to war in Iraq in part on faulty intelligence. It took him two-and-a-half years to concede this point. When will he admit that he “fixed the facts around the policy,” as the Downing Street Memo tells us he did?
Now, we discover from the President that he has ordered eavesdropping of U.S. citizen telephone calls in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Tapping these calls requires a warrant, which Bush did not seek. He could have asked Congress to change the law, but instead relied upon an old Congressional resolution. Resolutions do not carry the same force of law as Congressional acts.
This time, we have it in his own words: the President committed a felony. Each offense carries five years in prison, which means that, if we had a functioning Congress, we would have impeachment and removal, followed by prison for the rest of Bush’s life.
It is time for the public to admit we have been deceived. President Bush has repeatedly increased his powers at our expense. Our rights to privacy, to petition our leaders for grievances and to open government are at stake.
But all we hear from the public is the sound of silence.
There was a time in this nation’s history when hundreds of thousands of people would convene to decry government actions. One example was the series of protests against the war in Viet Nam in the 1960s and 1970s. Sometimes college students would take over administration’s buildings by sheet force of numbers. The message was “we will not tolerate an unwinnable and immoral war.”
Perhaps even more powerful was the civil rights movement. Over five hundred thousand people showed up at the Mall in Washington, DC in August 1963 to hear speakers, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This group pressured Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The message was “we will not tolerate unfair and unequal treatment of any group in our society.”
These groups enjoyed an advantage that current groups disenchanted with President Bush do not have: a focus. Each had a single issue and broad support from the public for its point of view.
Today’s activists need to make it clear what they fight for. It isn’t easy – sometimes their messages get lost in the conservative mantras we often hear (ex: we must not oppose the administration because then we wouldn’t support the troops and that would be treason).
The new message for these disenchanted people must be consistent and understandable. It must strike a chord not just among liberal activists but among moderates and even some conservatives as well.
We must speak loudly and clearly that we did not consent to President Bush taking away our constitutional rights so that he could fight a war on terrorism or otherwise. Government must be by the consent of those governed. The message should be “we will not tolerate lying and spying from our President.”