Common Sense II

Argue with this, Americans, if you can.  The Oath of Office for congressmen, required by Article Six of the U.S. Constitution to be sworn before entering office, is:  

"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

 

If you do not swear this oath, you cannot take office.

The Sixth of the Amendment of the US Constitution, the "Bill of Rights" states:

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State...to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense."

Period.

The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution states:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Period.

On May 8th, 2002, the government arrested Jose Padilla on American soil on allegations, but not formal charges, of terrorism.  The government's story on Padilla has changed more times than a paranoid chameleon.  George W. Bush ordered the military to take custody of Padilla as an "enemy combatant," in the June 9, 2002 Presidential Order to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:

"I, GEORGE W. BUSH, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces, hereby DETERMINE for the United States of America that...Jose Padilla, who is under the control of the Department of Justice and who is a U.S. citizen, is, and at the time he entered the United States in May 2002 was, an enemy combatant...Accordingly, you are directed to receive Mr. Padilla from the Department of Justice and to detain him as an enemy combatant. "

They made Padilla sleep on a metal cot, sleep-deprived him,and gave him LSD, so he was useless in his own defense when he was released to the civilian courts. They didn't charge him with a crime until 3 and a half years later.

In his Dec. 17, 2005, President's radio address George Bush admitted to reauthorizing illegal NSA warrantless surveillance over both American citizens and foreign nationals more than 30 times:  

"I have reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al Qaeda and related groups."

It makes no difference that in Bush's rationale for violating both the Fourth and the Sixth Amendments, he is employing the argument that A, we are in a war with no end and B, he has wartime powers as long as we are in a state of war.  A smart fifth grader could ask the questions: Aren't you giving yourself wartime powers forever?  And wouldn't that be the same as overthrowing the Bill of Rights?  And wouldn't that be against your oath to "defend" the Constitution?

As we have caught DINO Democrat Joe Klein lying, because people are waking up to the administration's true intentions, this has nothing to do with foreign nationals having the same rights as American citizens to freedom from search without a warrant.  This has to do with the NSA having the illegal authority, this very minute, to look at, listen to, to read, to record everything that is personal, without a warrant, as long as it is "reasonably believed" to "relate" to a terror investigation.  That's a long way from the Constitution's "probable cause."

The NSA is already empowered listen to anyone, anywhere, for a full 48 hours before getting a warrant. Bush does not want relaxed oversight. He wants no oversight whatsoever.

According to the Founders of our country, such power will always be turned against your political opponents. That would include government whistleblowers. There will be a black market in secrets akin to Stasi Germany. When Bush admitted to re-authorizing the NSA program 16 times, in the Dec. 17 radio address, he should have been impeached the next day

Count One: The president has betrayed, i.e. is a traitor to, his solemn oath to "the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," the obedience of which comes before ALL other duties.  The Oath says not a single, solitary word about pertekin' the American people.  That's why the Founders enshrined the Second Amendment of said Bill of Rights, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, so we could protect ourselves.  Including against tyrannical governments.  

II.

On July 12, 2007 Bush said of "that person" Valerie Plame: "Somebody in this administration leaked the name of that person" 

Special Forces Col. Patrick Lang, in the July 22, 2005  Dorgan-Waxman Committee Hearings on the damage to the national security done by Plame's identification, said:

"The possibility of penetrating these groups, the possibility of knowing that they're going to carry 10-pound bags of explosive in the subway stations, will go right down the drain."

 

A former diplomat quoted by Walter Pincus in the Washington Post, October 4, 2003 said:

"A former diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said yesterday that every foreign intelligence service would run Plame's name through its databases within hours of its publication to determine if she had visited their country and to reconstruct her activities."

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said of the Plame betrayal, (not "outing," you don't "out" war plans, you "betray" them):

"The fact that she was a CIA officer was not well- known, for her protection or for the benefit of all us. It's important that a CIA officer's identity be protected, that it be protected not just for the officer, but for the nation's security."

Fitzpartick managed only to try an underling, Scooter Libby, and to convict him of perjury.  When Bush pardoned Libby, he gambled that the outrage would blow over and the pardon would torpedo any strategy Fitzpatrick may have had to flip Libby as he sat doing jail time for his bosses.  He won.  So far.  One of the big mysteries of the Plame trial is why Fitzpatrick didn't go for the higher charge, treason.  Plame was an asset, despite Spin Radio's attempt to paint her as a bureaucrat.  Even James Bond had to go visit "M" and had an office somewhere, right?  That doesn't mean he's not secret.

Count Two: Betrayal of the national security.  The definition of treason in the Constitution includes giving "aid and comfort" to the enemy.  Surely tipping off Al Qaeda to our networks for catching them smuggling nukes is giving "aid."

If congressmen take the solemn oath to "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic," and they do not perform this duty, are they not collaborators to treason, and thus traitors themselves?

Article II section four of the Constitution commands:

"The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Note the operand says "shall" be removed, not "may" or "might." Is a congressman a civil officer?

At Iwo Jima the American death rate was a man per minute for the first 60 hours of the assault, about 3600 men dead in less than three days.  At Omaha Beach the death rate was even more appalling.  In both instances, these men believed they fought against forms of government where you could be swept off the street in secret, kept in secret, tortured, released, or imprisoned indefinitely according to the whims of a government which had proclaimed you an "enemy."

The world did not change on 9/11.  If we study the words of the Founders, it stayed much the same.  There will always be men who will attempt to "render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power...depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury...abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments..."

Sound like it was written yesterday?  No.  Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence.

If they do not do their duty, this 110th Congress will go down in history as the Collaborator Congress.  Is there any reason why the word "traitor" should not apply to those in it who will not impeach?  This nation has been through trials and turbulent times, but never, even through world wars and a civil war, has the Bill of Rights been permanently overturned.  The strength of the language must befit the gravity of the times.  If these congressmen do not impeach, then when the trials begin, be it in two years or twenty, perhaps after many more years of war, perhaps after domestic terror attacks that an attack on Iran will guarantee, after martial law and civil strife, the members of the 110th Congress will also be held accountable for the dereliction of their highest duty.

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The recently passing of, former President Gerald Ford who said, "Our Constitution Works, We The People Rule", reminds us that our government is of law, one that represents WE The People, and it does work.

Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln

One cannot look at the durable wisdom of our Constitution, and recall the deep commitment that unites our country, but one must think about the times that this same Constitution has come under attack.

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We should thus be thankful that, in its 1911 Reapportionment Bill, Congress chose to fix the House at 435 members.  That number has been defaulted from census to census, reapportionment to reapportionment, up to the present day because Congress has chosen not to change it.

It is time to revisit that calculus.

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