Letters to the Editor

• CO: this is what should happen. It won't but it should..

  [Read the article: Lewis Libby owes his freedom to our corrupt political elite]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  The Leaders of the House and the Senate should order the immediate arrest of the Vice President (by the Capitol police) to be held for investigation of contempt of Congress and treason. Can they do this? Yes they can. Would they? Of course not, it would be polite. But they can. And I would urge Americans to forget about impeachment and encourage Congress to go for the jugular, clap these miscreants, starting with Cheney, behind bars.

  Upshot? The Federal government would essentially collapse, or at least be frozen in place. Nobody could do anything, because nothing is done without Cheney's direct or indirect supervision. His many minions in Federal service cannot act on their own, they need to be "activated" as it were by his command. If he's in a truly secure, undisclosed location held incommunicado (oh, turnabout is such fair play), he can't do that.

  Bush would be effectively isolated; it appears the Government has already been told not to follow his orders without Cheney's OK. Bush would still be nominally in charge, but Congress would actually hold the whip hand.

  Downside? Possibly trigger a civil war. Cheney may be utterly loathed and loathesome, but anything that interferes substantially with the exercise of Republican (read: corporate/theocrat -- what a marriage made in Hell) Power is immediately denounced and rigorously fought throughout the entire American Palace Power Structure. Given that the Center of Power under this Palace regime is the Person of Cheney (apparently), taking him off the playing field could inspire violent uprisings by the (small, minority) horde of anti-American Republican armed "enforcers."

  Whether Americans would defend themselves and the nation from such a civil revolt, quien sabe?. I don't know that Congress would hold firm. There are many unknowns.

  But of course none of it will happen, because the Congressional leadership would never do such a discourteous thing to the Vice President as have him arrested. The very idea.

  Americans could go on strike. A general strike has been proposed many times, and the idea is always laughed at and ridiculed, largely because so many of us are working so many jobs and we are one or two paychecks away from bankruptcy and if we were to actually carry off a general strike, we'd lose our jobs and the Messicans would come and take them, and then we'd have to say that Lou Dobbs was right as they were foreclosing on our houses and repossessing our cars. So, we can't do a general strike. Besides, isn't it an illegal restraint of trade? [Tremble, tremble.]

  Never mind that governments all around the world have been routinely -- well, occasionally -- been brought down by such tactics, we can't do them here. This is America. We don't do those sorts of things. [You aren't gonna give my job to a Messican are you? For mentioning -- shhh -- General Strikes? Whew!]

  Persistent public protest is another option (or an additional one.) We keep hearing that Americans aren't taking to the streets, so obviously they don't care, so we can forget about public protest. It doesn't work, and nobody wants to be called a Dirty Fucking Hippie.

  Except that there have been huge -- unprecedentedly gye-normous -- protest marches all around the land, repeatedly (albeit at sparse intervals) that have been ignored. And there are smaller, persistent protests every week or month in hundreds of cities in this fair land. It is not true that Americans don't care -- supposedly proved by the fact that they haven't taken to the streets.

  What hasn't happened -- and needs to -- is persistent (every week, every day) large-scale public pot banging protest that interferes with the comfort level of public officials. No threats to them, just loud and boistrous demands -- such as ending the war(s), upholding the constitution, that kind of thing that people actually want and our public officials aren't respecting.

  Believe me, their cages would be more than rattled. And we might see some sideways movement on the part of our representatives. Then again, maybe not.

  Someone posted about how the Republicans were brought to heel on the immigration thing by the concerted email and phone campaign of their base... and we should do the same thing.

  Except for this: Congress only listens when the "right" people call and email. Millions of calls and emails from the "left" are routinely ignored on Capitol Hill. Why? Well, because the "left" is not the "right" kind of people. We may be the vast majority, but it doesn't matter a bit to Congress. And Congressional Democrats are notorious for denouncing, dismissing, and "distancing themselves" from their base. Basically, they will fight to the death any effort by the Democratic base to force them to act; on the other hand, they will (sometimes unconsciously) yield to pressure from the right wing base, in part because that's what they have been conditioned to do.

  Permalink Tuesday, July 3, 2007 09:43 AM

• Linear Chaos brings up another option

  [Read the article: Lewis Libby owes his freedom to our corrupt political elite]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Article V Convention, which is actually gaining a lot more support among The People than you might realize as it is never, ever mentioned in the Big Lefty Blogosphere.

  LC -- or someone who is involved with the movement -- should explain it. In a nutshell, it involves restoration of The People's Sovereignty. Radical, I know.

  Meanwhile, the question is, if there were a another civil war, who would be the combatants? If, say, an armed insurrection against a "leftist" (but Constitutional) government were to take place, would Americans fight to preserve it? Would there be a civil war, or would there be (another) capitulation.

  Good question.

  Permalink Tuesday, July 3, 2007 10:06 AM