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January 2006, Volume 13 Nr. 31, Issue 199

Giving George W. Bush a Third Term

Jozef Hand-Boniakowski

Recently, I dropped into my town's local Vermont country store to pick up a couple of bottles of a diet tea beverage.  I typically avoid the local Vermont country store as it often has a tendency to elicit the worst in vocal political discussion.  My town is both provincial and conservative, one of the most conservative of all in Vermont.  In this instance, there were a few local townsfolk who were delivering petitions for the upcoming Town Meeting.  Town meetings take place across Vermont in early March.  They are opportunities for Vermonters to discuss the issues and express themselves prior to voting.  Most voting takes place the next day by Australian ballot.  Two of the petitions being delivered had to do with local town elections and adding names onto the ballot.  Since my position is that those who volunteer to serve the public deserve the opportunity to do so, I signed these petitions.  The remaining petition was a petition to the town select board to adopt a resolution that thanks the members of the military for their service.  Being a veteran, I know and understand the intent of the petition.  However, I could not sign the petition.  I am eternally grateful for those who volunteer to help make society and the world a better place.  I am grateful to the working class who build the roads, construct the hospitals, teach children how to read, help the sick, comfort the mournful, and uplift those in poor spirits.  I am most grateful for the peacemakers.  There is a special place for them in the scheme of things within humanity.  I am not, however, grateful for the war makers and those who make war possible, nor for those who profit from making war.  A special place for them also, exists in the scheme of things within humanity.  They will held accountable.

Not signing the petition led to a dialogue regarding the illegality of the Iraq war and its associated terror.  Actually, I brought this up.  This was followed by my comments about George W. Bush and his impending impeachment and trial for crimes against humanity.  My fellow Vermonters proffered that, "If he could have a third term, I would for him again".  And so, the straw broke the camel's back.  To wit I replied, "George W. Bush is a criminal who had deliberately misled a nation to war and he will be taken up on charges and held accountable for his crimes."  From their reaction I could tell these were not comments they hear very often.  I can only surmise that a daily mega-dosage of FOX news, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and Bill O'Reilly has carved a fascist niche into the psyche of otherwise decent people.  The last retort that I received was, "Bush is our president."  To which I responded, "He is not my president".  The comeback was, "The people elected him president".  Did we now?  How quickly people forget?  Or do they make up history in order to justify accepting and documenting their own lies and that of their maximum leader?  Al Gore received a-half million more votes than George W. Bush in the presidential election of 2000.  That election was stolen by the Supreme Court by a plurality of just one vote.  The "democratic process" within the United States, then, was subverted as a-half million more votes for Gore were subjugated to  just one more vote for Bush.  The improprieties of the Bush administration and the Republicans in the 2004 election have consolidated the theft of both elections in the minds of many millions of voters.  Millions in the United States, including this writer, no longer believe that federal elections, and perhaps, all elections, can be conducted in a fair and impartial manner.  We see that elections are being bought and stolen by those who possess the capital and power to buy and steal them.  Elections are won through lying, cheating, deceit, disinformation, character assassination, gerrymandering, stuffing the ballot box, letting the dead vote, and denying qualified people the right to vote.  Both Democrats and Republicans can be thusly accused, but the Bush administration and the neo-conservatives have raised the impropriety to both a science and an art-form.  They have institutionalized deceit by incorporating it into their business plan.

If George W. Bush could run again for president (if that were possible) and should he have won then in actuality he would be serving his first term as president as the man is merely taking up residence inside the People's (White) House.  There is an impostor acting as president.  Here are a few reasons why my fellow townspeople might believe that the pseudo-monarch George W. Bush deserves a "third term" in the White House:

Initiating a war of aggression.  John Pilger in his April 11, 2003 article published in countercurrents.org entitled, "Crime Against Humanity" reminds us that, 

"To initiate a war of aggression," said the judges in the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leadership, "is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." In stating this guiding principle of international law, the judges specifically rejected German arguments of the "necessity" for pre-emptive attacks against other countries.

Use of Illegal banned weaponry and torture.  In their May 20, 2004, open letter to Representative John Conyers as published in counterpunch.org, Tom Stephens and John Philo write that Bush and his cabal have,

...conspired to start an unlawful war of aggression, justified by lies. Then they carried out their illegal conspiracy. It included unlawful killing of thousands of Iraqi civilians, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and use of weapons of mass destruction like cluster bombs and depleted uranium against the civilian population of Iraq. Throughout this conspiracy, they have implemented policies and practices for unlawful arrests, detention, interrogation, beatings, abuse, humiliation and torture, in violation of fundamental human rights protected by law.

Fallujah.  The destruction of this city in order to save it, is the 21st century equivalent of Guernica.  I doubt my fellow townspeople will read Saul Landau's "Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica".  Everyone should.  I doubt many in my home town know what Guernica is?

The hurricane Katrina disaster.  The installation of unqualified cronies within the administration and the Bush regime's incompetence says it all.

Destruction of Global Environment.  The Bush regime is responsible for the distortion of science and the obstruction of international efforts to stem global warming (Citizens Tribunal, bushcommission.org). This being mid January, the local Vermont lake is unusable for ice-fishing.  It has been a warm winter.  While there may or may not be a direction connection between global warming and this phenomenon, the Bush regime's outright disregard for facts supporting global warming and its inaction to deal with them are egregious.

Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights.  The Citizens Tribunal, bushcommission.org emphasizes in "particular" the "reference to the potentially genocidal effects of enforcing abstinence only, global gag rule, distortion of science, and restriction of generic drugs."

Lying to the people of the United States and the world.  There are too many lies to list them all, and new ones are told daily, especially by the Minister of Fact Reconstruction, Scott McClellan.  Many of the lies are documented at the website, http://www.bushwatch.com/bushlies.htm   For me, the lies that require nothing less than impeachment are the lies that led us into war, and the absurdity of the staged aircraft carrier jet landing where Bush stated, "Mission accomplished."  By themselves, the Downing Street Memo(s) are evidence enough for impeachment.  The downingstreetmemo.com website explains, 

The Downing Street "Memo" is actually meeting minutes transcribed during the British Prime Minister's meeting on July 23, 2002. Published by The Sunday Times on May 1, 2005 it was the first hard evidence from within the UK or US governments that exposed the truth behind how the Iraq war began. 

Awareness

The occupants of the White House are fully aware of the crimes they have committed.  That is why they are now preparing for the worst case scenario, that being impending impeachment proceedings.  There exist numerous drafts of articles of impeachment.  They include those written by Ralph Nader, and former US attorney general Ramsey Clark.  Representative John Conyers is working toward articles and has perhaps, the best possibility of success.  It is only a matter of time before masses of people who have a conscience demand impeachment.  The criminals in the White will be stopped only by a mass movement of, for, and by the people, that demand justice be done.  To my fellow Vermont townspeople, especially to those who espouse the Christian ethic, I ask, what about the Decalogue you call, The Ten Commandments: Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor?  Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house (oil)?  Thou shall not steal?  Thou shall not kill (100,000 civilian Iraqi deaths)?  My fellow Vermonter's, what would your Jesus bomb?  Not only are the Bush administrations actions and behavior against your professed Christian ethic, they are illegal!

I do not expect my encounter with my neighbors in the country store, nor this article to make any difference to them as they believe that being a "good American" in the 21st century United States is very much like the German people being good Germans in the 1930s.  Apparently, no amount of evidence or reasoning can change their minds that their maximum leader is above board, that he is intelligent and that he knows what he is doing.  When asked for explanations for his deceit, George W. Bush, in a moment of divine and intelligent inspiration says: I ain't gotta tell you nuthin'.  As Cliff Patterson, in his article on prisonplanet.com about Commander Bush puts it, "If the leaders of this nation aren’t obligated to answer to the people, then we should just go ahead and call it what it is - a dictatorship."  Apparently, a dictatorship is just fine for my Vermont neighbors.  It is not fine by me.  As for George W. Bush's third  term?  I would settle for letting the Texan have his first term...in prison, for high crimes and misdemeanors and for not defending the Constitution of the United States as is required by the oath of office he stole.  But, if my fellow Vermonters want to give George three terms in the slammer, I won't argue.  Impeach Bush!

Jozef Hand-Boniakowski is co-editor and co-publisher of Metaphoria along with his life partner and wife, JeanneE.  He is 30-year veteran teacher and a member of Veterans For Peace.  His writings have appeared in After Downing Street, Buzzflash, Counterpunch, Thomas Paine's Corner, Rense.com, Omni Center, Rutland Herald, Times Argus, and others.  

© 2006 Jozef Hand-Boniakowski

   
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