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Ref. : Letters to the editor
01.02 Blaming the Victims - The Dominant Media Vilify Hamas
12.30 Shock, Awe and Lies: The Truth Behind the Israeli Attack on Gaza
12.10 We All Failed Gary Webb
01.07 Gaza Voices, American Silence
01.06 The $6 Million Social Worker
01.06 Bush Spins Scandalous Neglect of Vets
01.02 2009 is Starting Off with a Shameful and Criminal Bang
12.27 Two Dangerous Bush-Cheney Myths
12.24 Madoff Scandal Exposes Government Failure
12.22 Cheney's Contempt for the Republic
12.19 Obama's New Appointments
12.18 Obama v. Washington Mythmaking
12.17 The Electoral College Has Got To Go
12.16 A Million McVeighs Now: The American-Made Insurgency in Afghanistan
12.15 Thinking About Illinois
12.14 Obama and US-Russia Tensions
12.12 A Time Machine to Save America
12.11 Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?
12.10 Workers of America: Wake Up! We All Need a Union!
12.31 America's War On Islam - The "Fort Dix Five"
12.30 Henry Kissinger: Eminence Noire
12.28 The Grinning Skull
12.22 Obama v. Richard Falk on Israel and Occupied Palestine
12.19 White House Lied About Iraqi Yellowcake Buy, But That’s Not the Biggest Scandal
12.18 Judge Declines to Jail 'Ghosts of the Iraq War'
12.18 Prosecuting Bush and Cheney for Torture: No One Can Be Above the Law
12.17 Cluster Bomb Treaty and the World's Unfinished Business
12.17 Abandoned by the World: UN Declares Open Season on Somalia
12.17 Assessing the Bush Legacy: The Measure of the Man and His Administration
12.16 Cheney Admits Detainee-Abuse Role
12.15 The Abduction, Secret Detention, Torture, and Repeated Raping of Aafia Siddiqui
12.12 Torture Trail Seen Starting with Bush
12.11 Atrocity Unlimited: US Seeks to Turn Somalia into Global Free-Fire Zone
12.10 The Persecution of Syed Fahad Hashmi
01.05 Thinking About the 2008 Numbers
12.29 Thinking About Realities
12.26 Early Suspicions About Bernard Madoff
12.24 The Federal Reserve Abolition Act
12.22 Thinking About Expectations
12.12 Excess Debt and Deflation = Depression
01.07 The Quartet's Hypocrisy and Failure in Occupied Palestine
01.07 Gazing at Gaza's Destruction: Israelis Sip Pepsi, US Progressives See 'Silver Lining'
01.05 Fallujah by the Sea: Aping America, Israel Unleashes Chemical Weapons in Gaza
01.05 Global Human Rights Groups Protest Slaughter in Gaza
12.30 How Hypocrisy on 'Terrorism' Kills
12.29 Israel's Wanton Aggression On Gaza
12.26 Christmas 2008: Hell in the Holy Land
12.17 Canada's Prince of Darkness Assumes Leadership of the Liberal Party
MEDIA CRITICISM:
Bill Moyers Puts Impeachment On the Media Table
In his Saturday program, Bill Moyers Journal, Moyers and guests John Nichols, the Nation's Washington correspondent and author of The Genius of Impeachment and Bruce Fein, a former attorney in the Ronald Reagan Department of Justice, made it clear that the Bush/Cheney administration has gravely threatened the Constitution and the survival of tripartite, divided government.
Nichols explained that the Constitution was designed by the Founders to be a “fighting” document, capable of handling dangerous times. He noted that the Constitution actually provides for the temporary barring of habeas corpus (the right to have one's imprisonment brought before a court and adjudicated), but he said that this was something that a president had to do with the approval of Congress (not behind its back), and only if the Country was under attack, which is of course not the case right now.
Fein for his part noted that most of Bush's and Cheney's abuses of power and violations of the Constitution and the rule of law have been done not openly and in consultation with Congress, but in secret and in the dark of night. His secret monitoring of American's communications-phones, mail and internet for example-went on for four years before it was exposed in an article in the New York Times. And the president has still not explained to anyone why he felt the need to break the law.
Fein and Nichols both blasted the current Democratic leadership of Congress for cowardice, lack of principle, and a basic failure to honor their oaths of office to uphold and defend the Constitution, in refusing to impeach the president. Fein said that in earlier administrations, there were always at least a few members of Congress who were honorable enough to put country and the Constitution above party. “We don't have anyone like that in Congress now,” he said.
Actually, it was one failing of Moyers' program that neither he nor his two guests mentioned that there actually are some honorable members of the current Congress. They did not mention that Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), has filed a bill of impeachment against Vice President Cheney, and that his bill currently has 14 co-sponsors, with more people signing on every week. They also failed to mention that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) only days before the program, declared in no uncertain terms that Bush and Cheney should be impeached, saying that the country was “closer to dictatorship than it has ever been” because of the president's assertion of “unitary executive” powers to ignore laws passed by the Congress.”
Despite this one shortcoming, Moyers' program is a public shaming of the tawdry and shameless corporate media, which has ignored the exploding impeachment movement blossoming across the nation, pretending that it doesn't even exist, or that it is the province of a few leftist wackos.
In fact, as Moyers noted, the most recent poll on the issue shows that half of Americans want both Bush and Cheney impeached and removed from office.
It will be interesting to see what impact the powerful Moyers program has on ther growing movement for impeachment, on how it is reported, and on the response in Congress.
While not watched by too many ordinary Americans, the program is influential among professional journalists and editors, and among liberals and progressives, who will be increasing their pressure on Democratic leaders to act.
Pelosi's efforts to block impeachment and keep it “off the table,” will continue to look more and more pitiful and self-serving.
The next challenge to do-nothingism will be a march on July 23 from Arlington Cemetary to the office of Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and the man who has the power to kick-start hearings on impeachment-in particular to schedule hearings on the Kucinich bill (H Res. 333).
A sit-in is planned in Conyers' office if he won't meet with the delegation, which will be headed by Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war and impeachment activist whose son was killed in action in Iraq.
About the author: Philadelphia journalist Dave Lindorff is co-author, with
Barbara Olshansky, of The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office
. His work is available at
www.thiscantbehappening.net.
Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.
This story was published on July 16, 2007.
