[Sosfbay-discuss] FW: Re: impeach bush letter -- an answer to your charges - Impeachment 101

Tue Jul 1 19:55:24 PDT 2008

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [Outreach-cmte] [Fwd: Re: impeach bush letter -- an answer to
your charges] - Impeachment 101
From:    "Alan Kobrin" <alank at spotgrafix.com>
Date:    Sat, June 28, 2008 11:30
To:      "OutReach" <Outreach-cmte at gp-us.org>
Cc:      "Rebecca Tobias" <rebeccatobias at gmail.com>
         "Scott McLarty" <scottmclarty at yahoo.com>
         "Brent McMillan" <Brent at gp.org>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

It may well be a waste of time, but I decided to answer this comment
sent by one reactionary reader.

In any case it was good practice to summarize the impeachment arguments.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: impeach bush letter -- an answer to your charges
Date: 	Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:21:08 -0400
From: 	Alan Kobrin <alank at spotgrafix.com>
Reply-To: 	alank at spotgrafix.com
To: 	sfic at southfloridaimpeachmentcoalition.org

Mr. Dziadik,

In reference to my letter about impeachment and censorship published in
the Jan. 28, 2008 Miami Herald, you admonished me "not [to] waste
newspaper space with such dribble." I think the word you wanted is
drivel. Aside from the personal insult which is not so important, there
is a very major principle you seem to be missing.

I wish I knew how to make you SEE, so please indulge me, and follow this
through. It will be worth your time.

1- America IS its Constitution. Without it, we have nothing special to
offer this planet. It is what set this "land of the free" apart
historically, why we call ourselves the "great experiment in democracy
(laws made by the people)". It is what spelled out the basis for a
democratic society, that which George Bush claims to be sending people
to kill and die for on the other side of the world.

2- Built into that Constitution is a self-defense mechanism, the process
of impeachment (basically a congressional accusation, which could lead
to a trial). It was written there in order to prevent and deal with
possible abuses of power or breaches of the Constitution.

3- The President, the Congress, and the Armed Forces ALL make an Oath to
that Constitution, not to the president, not to a political party, not
to a flag, but to the Constitution, to defend it against "all enemies,
foreign and domestic."

4- If, when an abuse seems apparent, as is the case of the George Bush
administration (whether you agree with that notion or not), impeachment
is called for to look into the case to see whether such abuse has really
gone on. Conservative elements used impeachment against Bill Clinton for
absolutely frivolous reasons, in order not only to harass and hinder him
and attempt to remove a political opponent from office, but also to get
the public to "see" impeachment as a mere political partisan tool
(instead of the safeguard of our Constitution that it is)--so it would
not likely ever be used against them in the future. Indeed, it seems
they succeeded in sullying the use of Impeachment itself.

5- If, in cases of seeming great abuse, impeachment is not called upon
(as required by our Constitution), then:
    a. our Constitution becomes "defenseless", and loses its means of
protection from abuse
    b. our Congress, by not invoking impeachment, violates its Oath of
Office to defend that Constitution, and becomes complicit in possible
wrong-doing
    c. The Constitution might never be protected again, and thus,
effectively America, as we know it, will have DIED, never to be
resurrected again as it was...and all our officials will have breached
their Oaths to defend it. The backbone of America will be broken.

So, those who say impeachment is wrong, or that there is not enough
time, are effectively allowing America to commit suicide, never to to
have that dream again. They will have done more damage to the US (and
the world) than any Al Queda or other foreign-based enemy ever could do.
It wouldn't matter any more what happens with America's wars abroad. Our
security (the constitutional basis for our society) will have been
severely breached, and the war at home will be LOST, our freedoms lost.

Spying, torture, no habeus corpus, preemptive wars, illegal unlimited
detention, infiltration of civic groups, censorship, accusing political
opposition of being "terrorists," etc....does this sound like the USA
you and I know? Sounds kinda like the ol' Soviet Union, doesn't it? I
don't know about you, but I don't want a dictatorship implanted here. I
want an ever-more-perfected democracy.

George Bush has been quoted as calling the Constitution, "that goddamned
piece of paper." THAT UTTERANCE, alone, is a violation of the inaugural
Oath of Office he took, and the document he swore to defend; it makes
him unfit to continue in that office, and should land him in the street.

There is no higher political or moral duty at this time for REAL
patriots to do their duty as it is required by law, by our Constitution,
to impeach. There simply ARE NO higher priorities than to save America's
Laws and Life.

So, NO, sir, to pretend there are more important things to do in
Congress during Bush's last six months, is to willingly stick one's head
in the sand while America dies an ignoble death. Do you want that on
your conscience? Is THAT the legacy you wish to give your children? Or
might you rather have them be proud to be part of a nation that knew how
to REALLY defend itself from abuse--and not just with bombs and
bullets--but rather, with the Supreme Law of the Land, the US Constitution.

Before you jump to conclusions and make emotional charges against those
who care deeply about the future of our nation, I suggest you actually
READ the 35 charges
<http://southfloridaimpeachmentcoalition.org/resolutions/bush_impeach.pdf>
by Kucinich (no matter what physical height or looks he might have) and
be able to deny all 35 of them. In any case, America has the right, the
need, the Constitutional obligation, to look into such allegations for
their merit. Any single one of them, if proven true, is grounds for
impeachment as written in our Constitution, which, the last time I
looked, still reigns as the supreme law in our land.

Yours, with due respect,

Alan Kobrin

PS-
The only connection between the impeachment charges and effort to get
hearings (currently supported by a number of Democratic congresspeople,
including Florida's Wexler) and the Green Party, is that our Party
looked at the evidence (and there is an astonishing amount), and has
been calling for impeachment of Bush & Cheney since 2003. We are glad
that finally others in our nation have seen the seriousness of what has
happened to the land we love, and are beginning to demand that Law be
followed and our Constitution be secured so that We, the People, can be
truly secure.

If our Party is "not taken seriously" it is to a great degree because
those in the two major parties (whom you apparently DO take seriously),
in clearly anti-democratic actions and to the detriment of open public
debate on the issues, prevent our group and other parties from access to
public debates and the media.

statesmc at bellsouth.net wrote:

> Dear Sir,
>
>      After reading you editorial in the Miami Herald I realize why
> your party is not taken seriously. There was a reason why no one was
> on the floor in Congress and why neither the press nor the public
> cared about the little troll like person called Kucinich wasted his
> time and taxpayers money by bringing up charges of impeachment.
>  Whether you support OUR PRESIDENT or not, and obviously you do not,
> President Bush will be leaving office in 6 months. Your idea to waste
> Congress's and the Senate's time on impeachment when there is so many
> more important issues to deal with and the fact impeachment would take
> more time then the President has in office, is just assinine. It is
> time for this country to heal and come together to solve our problems
> of today, not waste it's time or energy on ripping it apart on a dead
> issue. Please, if your going to write letters to the editor, do not
> waste newspaper space with such dribble.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Bob Dziadik

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cagreens.org/pipermail/sosfbay-discuss_lists.cagreens.org/attachments/20080701/6e4ad130/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Impeach-press-Soviet.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 15391 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.cagreens.org/pipermail/sosfbay-discuss_lists.cagreens.org/attachments/20080701/6e4ad130/attachment.jpg>