imprisonbush.com

Last week, two important groups accused George W. Bush of breaking the law. The American Bar Association said that George W. Bush is trying to place himself, as President of the United States, beyond the reach of the law using signing statements. The United Nations said that George W. Bush is violating international laws that the USA has agreed to by setting up secret prisons around the world that are, apparently, used as places to torture prisoners.

But does America care? Does America care that its leader is a criminal who is betraying the Constitution of the United States of America and taking the USA to the brink of a dictatorship?

Naw. Americans feel safe and comfortable. That’s all Americans seem to care about these days. Give an American protection from “bad guys” and a remote control to a television set, and chances are that American won’t really care if his freedoms are being stripped away and government spies know exactly what’s going on in his personal life.

Think I’m exaggerating? Consider the following passage from a blogger who has given himself the name Erie Observer:

“As a frequent flyer, who takes pause each time I see a Muslim type walk on the plane, I have no objection to having phones tapped, bank accounts monitored, body searches performed and whatever else it takes to protect me and my fellow passengers from a horrific demise.”

Can you believe this guy? He’s essentially saying to the government, “Please, take my liberty away! I’m too afraid that bad guys are going to come get me! I can’t take the freedom! Just give me security!”

This guy is a wimp.

Freedom isn’t for lily-livered sissies who fall down on their knees and wimper whenever they hear a Code Orange Alert of a possible terrorist attack. It takes guts to stand up and say that that you want your freedom, no matter how many terrorist plots come our way.

So, damn it, stop waffling and make a decision! Are you with the wimps who are so afraid of Osama Bin Laden that they’re going to surrender their freedom, or are you willing to get tough and demand that your right to the freedoms in the Bill of Rights be honored?

Stand up and be counted among the truly courageous, or go sit down and watch TV.

How would you know if you were living under an autocratic regime?

How about if you read a report about your nation’s government by the United Nations saying that the UN was “concerned by credible and uncontested information that the state party has seen fit to engage in the practice of detaining people secretly and in secret places for months and years on end.”

Gosh, that would be a pretty good sign that you’re living in an autocratic regime, wouldn’t it?

Think autocracy is too strong a term? The World Book Encyclopedia defines Autocracy as “a form of government in which one person holds supreme power. This individual cannot be restricted, according to law, by any institution or group of citizens from doing whatever he or she wishes. However, some of these leaders have used the appearance of public accountability and elections to conceal their autocracies.”

Sound familiar?

It ought to. The United Nations Human Rights Committee really has issued a report with the very charge seen above. That charge was made against the government of the United States of America.

If you’re not concerned, you ought to be.

Depressing news from the virtual gambling world today. Traders over at NewsFutures are betting that there is only an eight percent chance that the torture prisons of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will close by the end of the year.

That’s because, you see, George W. Bush says that he would like to close the prisons that are operated under his authority, but as the most politically powerful person on Earth, he just can’t figure out how to get it done.

Sure.

We here at Imprison Bush write a blog. We focus on the topic of crimes committed by George W. Bush, the efforts to prosecute him for those crimes, and the punishments he ought to receive.

As a blog, we will be easy for some people to dismiss. People who aren’t paying attention to what our government is doing, and don’t want to pay attention, will say that we’re “just” a blog, and presume that whatever we’re saying is just a bunch of complaints from a couple of cranks.

Those who care enough to pay attention, however, will note that we write about facts. We don’t engage in wild conspiracy theories. Increasingly, top experts in various fields are coming to agree with our fundamental conclusion: George W. Bush has not just broken the law as President. President Bush has become a threat to the law itself.

Sound like an exaggeration? Tell that to the American Bar Association, the national body that regulates the legal profession. A special task force of the ABA has issued a report concluding that George W. Bush, through his use of signing statements declaring himself exempt from laws passed by Congress, “undermines the rule of law and the constitutional system of separation of powers”.

It doesn’t get more serious than that. Dan Froomkin, columnist with the Washington Post, calls what Bush has done “an executive-branch power grab”. Froomkin calls Bush’s move an “”imminent threat to the Constitution”, and quotes journalist Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe as describing the powers that Bush is grabbing as “monarch-like”.

Monarch-like? Is it time to start calling Bush King George?

No. It’s time to impeach and imprison Bush.

Recently, a few brave air marshals have come forward to reveal that they are expected to report on a minimum of one terrorist suspect per month, whether they observe suspicious activity or not. If an air marshal doesn’t find at least one a month, it negatively impacts his promotions, raises, and work schedule.

What if you don’t see anything suspicious all month? Well, better come up with something. Does that mean the current system rewards air marshals for fingering innocent people as terror suspects and generating garbage intelligence?

According to one air marshal interviewed by Channel 7 in Denver,”it’s intelligence information, and like any system, if you put garbage in, you get garbage out.” Check it out here: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9559707/detail.html

There are real problems with garbage intelligence. Genuine reports of suspected terrorist activity are buried in a pile of garbage. Innocent people get onto secret lists of suspected terrorists.

Let’s not forget what the post-reality based Bush administration can do with piles of garbage intelligence. Cherry-picked and distorted, garbage intelligence becomes “credible evidence” in support of whatever actions they want to take, whatever reality they want to create.

I wish the problem with the Bush administration were only gross incompetence, or only a willingness to arbitrarily distort reality. But it’s not. Put the two together, and you’ve got one hell of a screw-America combo. What that’s done to America over the last five years is not pretty.

The following pertinent question comes to us from World Can’t Wait:

“Haditha…Guantanamo…Unapologetic, illegal spying on a grand scale…“Shoot to kill” orders issued at black people on rooftops in New Orleans …The most basic rights of women and gay people – as well as established scientific fact on a range of questions – sacrificed to the passions and prejudices of religious fanaticism…The devaluing and scape-goating of first this section, then that section, of the people…And on it goes, relentlessly, with no end in sight.

At what point is it too much for you?”

Let me shorten that question: While the Bush Republicans rip America The Free to shreds, are you just going to sit there and take it?

You don’t have to. You can do something.

Don’t know what to do? Here’s something to look forward to: October 5 is being organized as a Day of Resistance against the Bush Republicans and all that they’ve done to attack American liberty and democracy.

In the heat of the summer, October may sound far away, but this gives us only two and a half months to prepare. So, start now.

Find out more. Get in touch with others who will act. Get ready.

Four American soldiers stand accused of murder.

Their orders? They claim their official rules of engagement included the instruction to “kill all military aged males” in a suspected insurgent stronghold:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060721/D8J0K0F03.html

If it is true that the U.S. military ordered its soldiers to kill all the men in a town, why is it that–once again–only the lowest-ranking soldiers are brought up on charges?

Somewhere up the chain of command, the ones who gave the orders are getting away with murder.

Again.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is helping the movement to impeach Bush to kick it up a notch. First, the CCR published the Articles of Impeachment handbook. Now, they’ve created a companion activist web site: Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush.

The center of the web site is a campaign to get people talking about impeachment across America. From New York to San Francisco, there will be meetings organized through the web site at which people will watch a DVD based on the Articles of Impeachment book, and organize next steps for how to stand firm against the Bush Administration, and start working toward impeaching President Bush.

It’s summer, and I know you’d rather be thinking about pina coladas than politics right now, but this is important stuff. Bush isn’t just trashing America. He’s trashing the rule of law.

Pop Quiz time: A president who trashes the rule of law in order to gain more power for himself is commonly known as a…

… come on, you know the answer…

That’s right – a dictator.

Dictator = Bad, folks. We still have the chance to stop Bush from taking America all the way to the Dark Side.

Check out the Articles of Impeachment web site to see how you can set up a pro-impeachment event in your area.