Soapbox

The Courage to Use the “L” Word.

“September 11th changed everything” the president is fond of saying. Apparently this is not just hyperbole to George Bush- he thinks that it has even changed the Constitution.

Sorry, Mr. President: it hasn’t. And it’s a darn good thing for you, too.

In April of last year, on the campaign stump, the president twice went out of his way to assure the American people that all surveillance done under the Patriot Act “has to have a court order” and a warrant. In other words, he lied.

He didn’t mis-speak. He didn’t make a mistake; he wasn’t misled. He lied.

We now know that the president of the United States had been trapping e-mail messages, downloading laptops, inserting viruses and listening in on the business of American citizens without a warrant and without having to let anyone know what he was doing at least since September 11th 2001, if not from day one of his presidency. There was no reason for this lie. George Bush was not being questioned on this subject, he just strayed from his canned speech and took an extra moment to lie to America.

Now I happen to believe that this was not the first bold-faced lie he has told. I don’t even think it was the 10th or 20th public lie. In all those areas, though, Bush adamantly objects to the “L” word and resorts to the tired old line, “Mistakes were made.”

You know what? OK. Let’s say he didn’t lie about being involved in exposing a CIA operative. Sure. Let’s say he didn’t lie about the intelligence rationale used to start a war. Say he hasn’t lied about how many Iraqi batallions are ready for combat, about where the economic benefit of his tax cuts will fall, about a deliberate effort to supress democratic votes or where the permission to torture prisoners came from. Let’s say he didn’t lie about any of the dozens of things that I and many other believe he did lie about. Say he was mistaken, misled, quoted out of context: whatever. Go ahead. It doesn’t matter.

He lied to America in Buffalo New York when he said that all hunting down of terrorists was being done with proper warrants and authority. And no amount of name-calling, of labeling progressives “Christmas-haters” who are “soft on terrorism” or threatening that we’ll all be killed by terrorists if the President doesn’t spy on the Quakers, Cindy Sheehan, the Democratic Leadership Council or whomever he has been spying on, will change that.

So what do you do when the President breaks the law, lies about breaking the law and says “How dare you question my authority to do whaever I deem necessary?” The first step is for democrats in Congress to realize this is the issue and now is the time to stand up and say “No more!” No more hacking computers and stealing votes! No more propaganda, no more government giveaways to the rich while the poor go begging, no more raping the environment so oil executives can buy another villa in France. No more terrorizing and insulting and manipulating and spying on the American people to get what you want but most of all, no more lies damnit! No more lies!

Perhaps 2006 will be the year of the second American revolution, when the average men and women rise up and overthrow another King George. Who will be our George Washington ? John Conyers? Barbara Boxer? Something’s got to give, because I feel we are at a tipping point. There are too many angry, desperate people who aren’t going to shut up and go away.

What worries me is the form that revolution might take. President Bush has better hope that America does not believe that 9/11 negated the Constitution, despite his acting as if it did. He should hope and pray to whatever twisted, vengeful God he believes in that we still believe in the democratic process and rise up only in the voting booth. Scarily, thanks to 2 stolen elections, many people don’t believe that “Vote the bastards out!” is even possible anymore. In a time of war and economic fragility, the danger is that instead of a second revolution, we will have a second civil war, which would tear the country apart.

Given that possibility, impeachment seems the lesser of the evils.

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