Untitled Document
Among other things, the U.S. Declaration of Independence is a lengthy bill of
particulars against the "abuses and usurpations" of King George III.
If the revolutionary founders had had their own government, Jefferson would have
used his writing skills to frame an impeachment bill. Among the "abuses"
T.J. cited was the King's refusal to "Assent to Laws, the most wholesome
and necessary for the public good." If the colonists were riled enough over
taxes on stamps and tea to shake the world with revolution, what will their inheritors
do with the "usurpations" of our present Chief Executive? As Jefferson
wrote, "Let facts be submitted to a candid world":
1. He lied us into war in Iraq. According to the U.S. media-ignored British
"Downing Street Memo," he "fixed" intelligence around a
pre-determined policy of preemptive war. Results: 100,000 Iraqi civilian deaths;
about 1800 U.S. soldiers dead in two wars, 100s of thousands wounded and traumatized.
2. Under his watch, the U.S. suffered its worst terrorist attack on its soil.
He opposed an official investigation, then stalled for months on testifying
before a hand-picked committee. Finally testified behind closed doors.
3. He was "elected" under dubious circumstances in 2000.
4. He was "elected" under dubious circumstances in 2004.
5. He has approved (and his Attorney General Gonzales has re-defined) torture
at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and elsewhere, while simultaneously opposing
the International Criminal Court established to check such abuses. According
to Amnesty International, the United States has established a Soviet-style "gulag"
of torture around the world.
6. He failed to support the Kyoto Protocols, reducing greenhouse gases, but
worked to open up Alaska's ANWR to drilling-despoiling an eco-system and increasing
greenhouse gases.
7. He chose Halliburton toady Dick Cheney to be his running mate-twice.
8. He has attempted to pack the courts with ideologue-judges intent on overthrowing
Roe v. Wade, and institutionalizing the police-state abuses of Patriot Acts
I and II.
9.His "No Child Left Behind" education policies have replaced learning
with testing and allowed military recruiters access to our schools, cajoling
our children with military options before their minds have had a chance to open,
question and challenge.
10.He is attempting to dismantle the Social Security system that has ensured
"peace and freedom" for tens of millions of working Americans for
seven decades ("peace" of mind and "freedom" from economic
crises)-- rights hard-won by Labor and Progressives in decades-long struggles.
11. He has allied himself with Right-wing ideologues to curtail or abolish
stem-cell research vital to the conquest of debilitating and fatal diseases.
12. He has failed to develop a coherent energy policy-except to prosecute wars
for other peoples' resources. He fails to acknowledge the reality and impending
disasters of Global Warming.
13. He has continued the Globalization project of his predecessors: outsourcing
jobs, hollowing our middle class.
14. He has undermined the legitimate protective protocols of the C.I.A., politicizing
the agency, awarding positions on the basis of ideological orthodoxy rather
than merit and astute analysis.
15. He has subjugated his Administration to Neocon ideologues like Richard
Perle, William Kristol and Douglas Feith; men who have endorsed the "settlement,"
expansionist and Wall-them-in policies of Ariel Sharon, sowing the seeds of
anti-Arab racism, war and destruction in the Middle East for generations to
come.
16. In spite of his rhetoric about freedom and democracy, he has allied himself
with dictators in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Egypt and elsewhere. He has increased
the flow of arms to these states and others, fomenting instability, turmoil
and war.
17. He chose Rumsfeld as DoD Secretary twice, in spite of Rumsfeld's obvious
failure to adequately plan for the post-Saddam era in Iraq, inducing massive
"collateral damage," the looting of ancient treasures, and infrastructure
destruction in a country we were legally and morally bound to rehabilitate.
18. He endorses the weaponization of space, "Rods from Gods," and
other exotic, Star-Wars technologies to establish a twenty-first century American
global empire that is doomed to create an arms race with China and other opposing
coalitions, sowing discord and wasting the resources of the world.
19. He has presided over the most egregious media consolidation in the nation's
history. While we have had "yellow journalism" and other media abuses
throughout our two centuries of Republic/Empire, we have never suffered the
consolidation of power that we have today. He has presided over the emasculation
and cowering of PBS, while his disinformation troops have peddled fraudulent
stories and comments to "reporters" like Judith Miller, Armstrong
Williams and Jeff Guckert-"Gannon," poisoning the well of information,
adding to the general confusion and Goebbelsization of our news.
20. He lied about, misled, or misunderstood the astronomical costs of the Iraq
and Afghanistan wars. He continues to do so, diverting tax money for education,
health care, the EPA, transportation and social infrastructure into war-making
and destruction.
21. He has continued and enlarged the depraved Clinton policy of using depleted
uranium on the battlefield; a policy bound to cause massive suffering and death
to Americans and others for generations to come.
22. He has alienated our traditional allies and more than a billion Muslims
around the world. He has ransacked the good will extended to the nation after
the 9/11 attacks, leading a crusade of vengeance and reprisal, most often against
innocents, judging without sufficient evidence, arrogating to himself a crooked,
self-righteous Texas sheriff's power to execute without justice.
23. Under his watch, millions more Americans have been added to the ranks of
the uninsured while health-care costs have exploded. His answer to these and
other pressing social problems appears to be faith-based charities-in other
words, preaching to the choir while stealing from the pews.
24. Under his watch, the North Koreans have, apparently, developed eight nuclear
weapons and Israel has continued to increase and refine its arsenal-now estimated
as high as five hundred.
25. He has murdered the English language.
Gary Corseri has published 2 novels, 2 poetry collections, the Manifestations
anthology [edited], and his work has appeared at CounterPunch,Common Dreams,
The New York Times, Village Voice, Axis of Logic, Dissident Voice, Redbook and
elsewhere. His dramas have been presented at PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He can
be reached at: corseri@verizon.net.