BennyBrooklyn has pointed out that the power to impeach belongs to the legislative branch. True: thus the failure of US citizens has been (as I had not adequately pointed out earlier) that they have NOT forced the legislators they have elected to carry out the impeachment process on GW Bush and Gang, War Criminals who have taken charge of the lives of US citizens today (and of the lives of most people around the globe because the US happens to be the world's sole super-power).

And yes, as Amity claims, the 'liberal failure' has primarily been that they they do not adequately critique themselves. But, as a matter of fact, as a non-US citizen, I've actually seen much less of this needed needed ability 'self-critique' in Republicans than in Democrats as a group. For instance, look at GW Bush as a prime exemplar of 'Republican-hood' - he has indicated he believes that everything he does, day by day (minute by minute and second by second as a matter of fact), is actually based on Jesus Christ's personal directives to him, and therefore all that he does is beyone any critique by any human being including himself! Witness his astonishing ability to see no flaws in all he has done (Since when? Since he ceased being a public drunkard and became a very public Christian?)

However, the 'inability to self-critique' is a actually a failure shared by many: to my mind as a non-US citizen, US Republican are much poorer at doing a 'self-critique' than are US liberals (who do a pretty poor job of it as recent history shows)... but this inability to 'self-critique' is not restricted to US citizens.

In general, we human beings do not adequately critique ourselves - in particular there is this set of beliefs that lead us to feel that because of our 'intelligence' we are the 'Masters of the Universe': which beliefs and attitudes lead to various actions we perform and continue to perform even when we should know beyond any shadow of doubt that they are dangerous. We every day demonstrate the results of this inability to 'self-critique' in the lack of responsibility we display towards ourselves, towards the planet we live on, towards the next generations who must live on the planet we are rapidly making a wasteland of...

There are practical tools available that can help us - as individuals and as groups - actually to develop the needed capacity to do this 'self-critiquing'.

-- GSC

As an interesting, most timely reminder of the importance of a culture that enables and ensures effective 'self-critiques', here's a relevant story that has just broken:

"Gates ousts Air Force leaders in historic shake-up"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080606/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/air_force_shake_up

The story discusses this issue of 'self-critique' (or 'self-assessment', in the words of the report) - see 3rd para as quoted below:

"Defense Secretary Robert Gates ousted the Air Force's top military and civilian leaders Thursday, holding them to account in a historic Pentagon shake-up after embarrassing nuclear mix-ups.

"Gates announced at a news conference that he had accepted the resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne — a highly unusual double firing.

...

"In somber tones, Gates told reporters his decision to remove Wynne and Moseley was based on the findings of an investigation of the Taiwan debacle by Adm. Kirkland Donald. The admiral found a 'lack of a critical self-assessment culture' in the Air Force nuclear program, making it unlikely that weaknesses in the way critical materials such as nuclear weapons are handled could be corrected, Gates said." (Emphasis mine)

.

Well, at least the US Defence Secretary was able to make this specific evaluation in regard to his charge of the US Air Force. I observe that there is apparently no one at all in the whole of the US power structure to point out the lack of an adequate self-assessment culture at the upper levels of the US power structure, specifically at the top levels of the GW Bush administration. (Individuals like us at letting off steam in discussion forums like Salon obviously do not count at all in the power structures of any nations!) Two specific cases in point:

-- The first has to do with GW Bush's famous "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" outing by an Air Force/Navy plane to the flight deck of the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (with GW Bush having pretended to fly the plane himself all decked out in his fancy yellow pilot suit with handkerchiefs stuffed in at his crotch to emphasise his malehood to the admiring audience on the ship - not to mention some huge TV audiences).

As an outsider, I for one surely find that whole vainglorious exercise by GW Bush to simply scream of the lack of a 'self-assessment culture' in the Bush administration. How come no one called him out on this? How come no one in the whole administration told him that this was an utterly idiotic way to go?

(Remember also that this was a 'leader' who had managed through of his family ties to evade his own military draft duties in Vietnam).

There are undoubtedly scores (probably hundreds) of such incidents in the history of the GW Bush administration - particularly if you take the performance of various actors such as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, --- Wolfowitz, Condoleeza Rice..... I do not have a detailed checklist of the doings and sayings of all of them, but particularly revealing to my mind was the fatuous GW Bush Thanksgiving outing to Baghdad (2005?), where GW Bush posed for photographs and massive TV coverage handing out phony, plastic servings of turkey dinner to his valiant troops there, saying something along the following lines: "I just wanted to have a good Thanksgiving dinner".

The question I have is: This is the kind of person to whom US citizens entrust the leadership of their nation, the world's sole superpower????!!!! Twice Over!!!! Wow!!! Talk about the lack of a self-assessment culture!

(I'm NOT claiming that we in India are perfect, or even significantly better in regard to self-assessment at the upper levels of our political hierarchies - but surely we have to be, I think, a wee bit better placed at least.

(I observe in passing that in India we do not have a useful forum such as Salon readily available here, where such issues can be discussed. In that respect we are a bit worse off than the US is. I also observe that even this Salon forum, while quite useful for us to raise such issues as 'self-assessment', 'self-critique' etc - at a 'start-up level' - even Salon does not provide any practical means to enable people to design and develop practical enhancements and improvements in their systems that could, perhaps at some stage in the future, ensure more effective self-assements, etc at the upper levels of our societal hierarchies.

(Note to Salon Editors: Practical tools are readily available that can help individuals and groups "design better systems" for all kinds of purposes. One of the most important aspects of 'better systems' is practical means being available within the systems to enable and ensure reasonably effective means to continuing 'self-assessment', 'elf-critique', etc. You might like to enquire about how such systems could be developed with Salon itself, if you ever feel the need for enhancing a culture of 'self-assessment': it is evident that merely enabling your readership freedom to raise such issues in standard prose does not adequately develop that much-needed culture. What's essential is something I have described in some of my earlier postings as 'prose + structural graphics' [p+sg]).

-- GSC

We are very DUMB to vote

I counted the number of very dumb people personally. I came up with 62,040,606. By sheer coincidence, this was the number of people voted for Bush in 2004.

--fhunter

Some of those 62,040,606 may have died. It may even be that some have gained 'wisdom' since 2004 (unbelievable though it may be that such a miracle could ever happen to a 'Bushie'). To counter such losses through the rise of wisdom in one-time Bushies, it is also quite possible that some very dumb people may have been born or may have developed through creationism, intelligent design and such wondrous non-evolutionary strategies of the omniscient God that Bushies believe in...

Thus it would be interesting to find out just how many will vote for John McCain (aka GW Bush redux) this November.

--GSC