Impeachment?

For weeks, every day we have looked up "impeachment."

In France, impeachment is news, as the government plans to change the constitution to theoretically boot out badly behaved presidents, though the changes, which protect the incumbent, are criticized as " the tree of impeachment hiding the forest of complete immunity."

Elsewhere, as you would expect, impeachment is also a hot issue.

One arguer for impeachment is quoted today as saying, "It is about respect for our Constitution, respect of the rule of law, decency, integrity and setting the stage for good governance. It is about reigning in and checking the abuse of power and arbitrary rule."

Where impeachment has been undertaken, here is one text for the reason why:
" . . . has undermined the integrity of his office, has brought disrepute on the Presidency, has betrayed his trust as President, and has acted in a manner subversive of the rule of law and justice, to the manifest injury of the people of the (nation)."

The arguer for impeachment quoted above, in a place that is possibly the top spot in the news today where the issue is being debated, is Anderson Mazoka, UPND President, discussing the proposed impeachment of President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia.

Impeachment is a hot issue today (in regards to various government miscreants) in Zambia, the Philippines, France, Argentina, and Nigeria. In the UK, it is not being discussed, though there is enough foment to seriously worry Tony Blair, and to have his chief spinmeister employ that historical best defense: offense.

In the USA, impeachment is hardly being discussed at all, and certainly is not in the headlines.
You might wonder about the USA. So do we. We thought, weeks ago that, that America was waking. It seems we are wrong.

William Pfaff's column today in the IHT is titled "Britain stirs, America sleeps"

Why?

The reasons for impeachment quoted above were the ones that were hung around Bill Clinton, surely an abuse of the very serious power-abuse mechanism that impeachment is.

The contrast between the furor then, and the silence now in the press, as well as the silence and ignorance of the American population, is not only stunning, but frightening, as well as being dangerous to Americans and the world.

 This administration is the most dangerous, fear-mongering to all who question it, and anti-democratic that the US has ever known. The precedents set by the lies told, if gotten away with, will devastate the concept of a decent democracy, a role model to the world. The cronyism and secret cabinet of money-men is something from the Warren Harding era, now foisted upon the world, and gearing to remake nations in America's name.

The Doctrine of Pre-emption, if not repudiated for the madness that it is, will give succor to the worst impulses of the world's power-grabbers. The coupling of the lies that gave the excuses to the policy of pre-emption demand a process to thoroughly expose, expunge and repudiate, for the good of the world, not only the health of the world's present superpower.

What is needed, we urge: A Pre-Emption Doctrine Commission. By that, we mean a Watergate-type Commission (and in that, there was a non-partisan approach that was effective) that would thoroughly investigate the whole network of players pushing and now profiting by this doctrine, as well as the repercussions of said doctrine and unaccountability on other leaderships in their flaunting of formerly shared international conventions.

But what is needed first, it seems, is an awakening.

Why are Americans acting as if asleep, or somatized?

Is it fear? Not of terrorists, but of the government itself, the Patriot Act, the public itself in a twisted sense of patriotism even now being foisted upon America by this administration and its oddly nostalgic enthusiasts?

Sara Paretsky recently wrote in the New Statesman, " A chill wind is blowing today. Some people say, oh, our freedoms have been assaulted before, but we've always recovered them. But civil liberties are not like the tide: they do not roll in automatically once they have receded. We have never recovered our liberties without fighting very hard for them, and it is hard to fight for freedom when you can go to prison or face ostracism for being 'unpatriotic', or face firing."

Or are Americans acting somatized because of an astounding level of ignorance? And why is that? Is it the concentration of the press, as has been alleged, so that there is a fatal (to news and issues) kowtowing to authority, and a mental inability to consider the citizens to want to know more about the world's serious issues than which contestant in a reality TV show is most likely to be voted out? If so, then what about a spot of trust-busting?

Whatever the reasons, the situation is critical for us all. We must work together, somehow, to healthily change the status quo. We don't know how, but we do know that it needs the American press to wake up to its responsibilities, or be damned for its irresponsibility.

American politicians have to become the leaders they were elected to be, because until they do, Americans don't know the extent of the problem, as the silence before was deafening, and now, is even more-so, considering the extent of miscreation that they cannot plead ignorance about.

And we all must speak out to not only raise awareness, but to become pro-active far beyond those temporary flights of democratic fancy that were the anti-war demos. We need something much more substantial to bring back a sense of what democracy should be about, what a nation should be instead of letting it slide into the horror of deception, cronyism, might-is-rightness, godquoting proselytizing, and loyalty-oath creepiness and spying upon fellow citizens that many people have fought in wars to prevent.

The strange thing is that, around the world (if you don't count America), people are well informed, worried, and trying to do something positive, by spreading knowledge, and awareness of ideas. As an example, the excellent site, The Network of Women In India, http://www.nwmindia.org, features today a speech by Senator Robert C. Bird, "The Road to Coverup is the Road to Ruin."   

The rest of the world is watching.

Today, the greatest power in the world is certainly a model. The question is - for what?

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Further recommended reading:

"America's shame: A public happy to be conned" by Ellen Goodman, The International Herald Tribune, June 28, 2003 Tribune  

"The Imperial Presidency Redux" by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The Washington Post, June 27,2003

"United States: An unfree press" by Serge Halimi, Le Monde Diplomatique, June 8, 2003

"The New Censorship: the chilling climate in America, where a visit to a foreign-language website can get you arrested, and the FBI can search library records for dissenting books", by Sara Paretsky, New Statesman, 2 June 2003

"The USA PATRIOT Act and American Libraries" by Robin Rice, Information for Social Change

Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General during the Johnson Administration, has prepared historical notes on the power of impeachment. He has also drafted articles of impeachment setting out the crimes and misdemeanors he perceives the Bush administration to have committed. You can see the information at www.votetoimpeach.org/

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