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An Unlikely Conversation With
The Cowards in Congress
![]() Contributing Editor - TvNewsLIES.org
Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of Congress...
But I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
THE DIALOGUE
What shameful toads you are! Yes you, our elected lawmakers. Yes you, the folks we sent to Washington in our names. Yes you, the most spineless, cowardly and craven Congress people in history. Yes you, the most bullied, gutless and shameful herd of legislators ever elected. And you know exactly who you are.
Where in hell is your integrity? Where in hell is your self-respect? You’ve been led by your submissive noses to do the bidding of liars and warmongers. You’ve been suckered into applauding some of the most egregious crimes ever committed by a US government. You’ve become such a pitiful collection of sniveling sycophants. And you know damn well who you are.
What’s that? You want to know what you’ve done? Of what odious crimes are you guilty to evoke such striking condemnation? Is that what you’re asking? Is that what you really want to know? You’re joking, right? Do you want the American people to believe you have no idea what this is all about? What nonsense that is.
But, for the sake of discourse, let’s accept your ignorance for the moment. For starters, let’s take a look at two provisions in that forgotten document, the Constitution of the United States. Perhaps their significance will ring a bell somewhere in your pathetic and paralyzed minds.
We can begin with Article 1, Section 8. Here, the Constitution clearly states that you, and only you, have the right to declare war. Did you get that? Only Congress can take on the awesome responsibility of causing death and mayhem when there is a need to go to war. Only the Congress of the United States has the Constitutional power do that. Keep that in mind as we go on.
Next, let’s do a replay of an Article you knew only too well a few years ago: Article II, Section 4. It says that the President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Remember that one?
Do you remember how you fell over one another to speak at the podia of your respective Houses to condemn Bill Clinton’s private affair with Monica Lewinsky? You came out from under every piece of woodwork in the Capitol with such pompous indignation. You came from both political parties to wail to your constituents about the sexual indiscretions of a sitting President. And then you impeached him.
Yes, you were divided, but you crossed party lines to demand a trial for perjury and obstruction of justice. Keep that in mind, too.
You still don’t understand, do you? Of course, you don’t. You still want to know what it is you’ve allegedly done. You have no clue at all. You cannot see that your guilt has nothing at all to do with anything you have done. Rather, your collective culpability lies in your INACTION, your SILENCE, your ACQUIESCENCE and your docile SURRENDER to the administration of PNAC as fronted by George W. Bush. Your cowardice is reflected in your complicity in his crimes against this nation and the world, and your refusal to stand up and denounce the secrecy, the duplicity, and the blatant lies that have brought the United States to this terrible moment in its history.
You forfeited whatever integrity you might have had as you timidly allowed a curtain of fear and intimidation to fall over Washington and the nation. You knew that, but you probably don’t want to deal with it. Denial is salvation for some, and you probably needed to feel self-righteous about your role in Congress and your loyalty to your voters. Some joke. In fact, you are little more than cheap imitations of true public servants. And you know without any doubt at all who you are.
You still don’t have a clue as to what this is all about, do you? That, too, is nonsense. You do know, you really do, but feigning ignorance is clever and effective. So let’s lay it out for you in simple terms that even you can understand Maybe, when you take a close look, at the facts, you will look in the mirror with a little more skepticism. Maybe, just maybe, you will see yourselves as the lemmings you are. And maybe, just maybe, a few among you will reach back to see if your backbones have any chance of regeneration.
A SHORT LIST OF OFFENSES
- George W. Bush came to the Presidency and immediately appointed a cadre of convicted felons and their associates from the Iran Contra era to many extremely important government positions. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Members of the Project for a New American Century, proponents of preemptive wars against Iraq and Afghanistan were immediately given more than a dozen strategic positions in the new Bush government. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- After 9/11, George Bush refused – for eighteen months - to investigate the causes of the worst attacks in history on American soil. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Condoleezza Rice lied to the nation about never having imagined the use of hijacked airliners as weapons. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Rice, Bush and Cheney had to be coerced to testify before the Kean Commission. Rice refused to testify under oath, and Bush and Cheney testified for a very limited time and only as a team. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Rice admitted to the Kean Commission that the August memo had warned about possible attacks on AMERICAN soil by Al Qaeda, and yet the President remained on vacation at his ranch for the remainder of the summer. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- George Bush manipulated intelligence information in order to gain support for his plans to attack Iraq. That is an impeachable offense. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Colin Powell lied to the United Nations in a fabricated presentation designed to gain support for a preventive attack against Iraq. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Condoleezza Rice lied over and over and over to the nation about Saddam Hussein’s WMD’s, his connection to Al Qaeda, and his plans to attack the US. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- George Bush wrested away your power to declare war by lying to the Congress about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. He promised to use military force as a last resort, after all other options had been exhausted. He lied to Congress. That is an impeachable offence. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- George Bush handed Haliburton, Dick Cheney’s former company, multi billion dollar, no-bid contracts in Iraq. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- George Bush sent Ahmed Chalabi, a convicted felon, and his source for false WMD information to Iraq with and team of 800 armed thugs. They staged the infamous statue toppling, and bilked American taxpayers out of billions of dollars in regular payments to set up a pro Bush interim government. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- In May of 2003, George Bush declared major conflict ended in Iraq. His mission was accomplished. Since then horrific chaos, death and destruction have followed. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- The Pentagon refused to allow photographs of returning flag-draped coffins, and refused to count civilian deaths in Iraq. Yet, they managed to stage the rescue of Jessica Lynch, which was exposed as a fabrication. AND YOU NEVER SAID WORD
- Our young men and women in Iraq were dying and being maimed because they had no armor on their Humvees to protect them from roadside bombs. They were sent to die without adequate body armor, radios, night goggles and flashlights. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians were killed by our so-called smart bombs and illegal weapons, including napalm and depleted uranium shells were used as standard weapons. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Photographs and eye-witness testimony from the ICRC and other agencies proved that the US was breaking international law by torturing prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The problem was systemic and condoned at the highest levels of government. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Private airliners were being used by the Pentagon to transport prisoners for interrogation in other countries that condone and practice horrific methods of torture. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- George Bush and his cohorts changed the rationale for going to war over and over, manipulating their mantras as each lie was exposed and new reasons were needed to justify their illegal war. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- There was no plan to keep the peace, no plan to stop the looting, no plan to deal with an insurgency despite the warnings of so many in the military. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- The chaos, increased, the deaths and the destruction grew, and the insurgency proved to be unending. But your President told you we were making progress. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- The Downing Street Minutes were leaked to the public months ago. The content of these nine documents made it clear that George Bush had planned an invasion of Iraq at all costs, and that he planned to ‘fix’ intelligence information to gain support for his war of choice. That is an unquestionable high crime that merits impeachment. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- The Downing Street Minutes remain ignored by the White House, and neither the Congress nor the media have demanded answers from the President. Rep. John Conyers was refused a meeting room for an airing of these important documents and had to hold his hearing in a tiny basement room. Such disrespect was unprecedented and inexcusable. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
This, dear Congress people, is the short list. But even in its brevity, it is a powerful indictment of your villainous roles in tacit support of the affairs d’etat of the Bush administration. But, to really get to you, to really make you sit up and look at yourselves with some pangs of conscience, the list needs a powerful finale, - one that makes all the other items almost pale by comparison. So here it is:
- In March of 2003, someone in the White House committed a serious felony. He or she or they leaked the identity of a CIA operative to the press. This was done to punish Joseph Wilson, a man who had dared to expose George Bush’s lie about yellow cake uranium sales to Saddam Hussein. Despite the seriousness of this crime, George Bush did nothing to try and discover who was responsible. In fact, he refused to conduct any investigation of his own staff to uncover a felony under his roof. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- After three months of ignoring a crime by someone in the WH, the CIA demanded an inquiry of what they termed a crime. Only then was the case given to WH buddy and supporter, then AG John Ashcroft. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Finally, after five months had passed, the case was handed to a Special Counsel working on behalf of the Justice Department. Two years and millions of dollars after the Novak article outing Valerie Plame appeared, George Bush has yet to call Karl Rove aside and demand an explanation. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
- Two years and millions of dollars after the article appeared, George Bush has yet to come forward and tell us what he knew and when he knew it. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD. YOU STILL REFUSE TO UTTER A SINGLE WORD!
ENDING THE CONVERSATION
So there it is, folks. There is your non-response, your silence, your inertia in the face of the actions that have brought this country to its most divisive state since the Vietnam conflict. There is a short list of your kow-towing to an administration that has made our country hated all over the globe, and turned our leaders into international targets of ridicule and disgust.
There it is, folks, and if the shoe fits, you know what to do. Your silence has been both appalling and immoral. You are as responsible for the death and destruction in Iraq as the Bush/PNAC warmongers, and your legacy will mark you as the lackeys and bootlickers you are.
For the record, and to give credit where it's due, this is not addressed to every single member of Congress. The proverbial shoe does NOT fit a small handful - a tiny minority among a minority - of courageous and outspoken people whose voices are few but powerful. This message is NOT meant for Congress people such as John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Dennis Kucinich, Cynthia McKinney and others who have refused to be intimidated or suppressed. We salute them for preserving what little is left of our democracy. But you know damn well who you are if you are not among them.
But everything changed with 9/11, you claim. We wouldn’t dare question the President, you say. We would surely have been called traitors, or appeasers, or even worse….liberals. We had to go along with him, you insist. And in a way, you’re right.
9/11 did change things. It separated the cowards from those with principle and conviction. The latter, sadly, were far outnumbered in Congress by the former. But that is how history is always made. The few who dare, take the risks. And those few earn a lasting and much admired place in history. Not so, you.
Yes, for certain, you know who you are. But more important, so do the American people. They have watched you cower and crawl and promote the crimes of your President and his handlers. Despite the silence of the media and their complicity along with yours, the truth is gradually seeping into the consciousness of the public. If there is any justice in the world, you will answer to them for your cowardice.
Public opinion polls must be making you nervous right now. You men and women, who represent us in the hallowed halls of Congress, have lost the confidence of more than 63 percent of the voters! In truth, you have not lost it; you have systematically and cravenly destroyed it. You made choices, and hopefully, you will have to answer for them. You saw what was happening, you learned the truth, you were witness to the crimes and the treason, and you sat back and did nothing. You saw the evil grow and spread. AND YOU NEVER SAID A WORD.
Next November, the voting public will have its turn (that is if we solve the election fraud situation that has dominated elections since the 2000 coup d’etat.) They will either thank you for your honorable work, or will remove you from office for your betrayal of their trust. Start worrying now, because your time is short. On Election Day, 2006, the full House and one third of the Senate are up for election. On that day Americans will have a chance to have the very last word. If there is any justice, that word to you will be goodbye.
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