Think About It:  Had Enough?

By

Mike Pulaski

July 11, 2007

I am a lifelong patriot who served my country on two combat tours of duty, was wounded in a firefight, and decorated for heroism.  I love my country and all the founding principles for which it stands.  I continue to be willing to put my life on the line to defend its ideals.

Over the past 6 years, I have witnessed the highest leaders of our country lead an assault on our founding principles that were fought for and defended so valiantly by our ancestors.

Think about it.

• Our President intentionally lied to the people in his State of the Union Address so we would go to war against Iraq.

• Our President and Vice President ordered our various intelligence agencies to spy on its own citizens.

• Our President, Vice President, and their subordinates have lied and continue to lie to Congress.  When subordinates are caught lying and sentenced to jail, the President pardons them, in violation of a sentencing guideline law that he sponsored.

• Our President and Vice President have refused to comply with laws governing their handling of state secrets, saying they are “above the law”.

• Bush’s Attorney General lied to Congress so that the basic American Right of  habeas corpus is suspended.

• Our President and Vice President have refused to honor subpoenas ordering them to testify on their own behalf and have ordered their subordinates to ignore their own subpoenas as well.

• Our President has silently inserted “signing statements” on 725 different pieces of legislation passed by Congress.  Many of these signing statements make it clear he thinks he is above the law – the “Decider”.

• One signing statement was the basis permitting us to torture prisoners.  This violates a policy established by General George Washington and one we have followed for over two centuries.

• Another signing statement says only the President can decide when and when not to follow the Geneva Convention.

Our President, Vice President and their administration have a disapproval rating of 66%; that is, 2 out of every 3 American citizens disapprove of how the Bush administration is conducting our country’s affairs.

• The administration bungled its handling of the Katrina victims, and still many remain displaced.  Temporary mobile housing sits in Mississippi, never used.  Millions of dollars worth of food went to spoil and had to be destroyed because of inept management.

• The administration sponsored a tax break for the upper 0.001 of the US population – the Super-Rich – about 1,200 families.  The entire US middle class continues to foot the bill for the Bush administration’s foibles.  Under Bush, we have gone from a budget surplus to a budget deficit.  Thus, our children and their children will pay for this incompetence after Bush and Cheney are retired and on fat government pensions.

• A world renowned scientist at NASA was forbidden to testify about his global warming research because its findings were counter to the Bush administration’s political position on the issue.  Bush’s position was bought and paid for by the political campaign contributions of US energy companies.

• The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was fired by President Bush when the General said prior to the Iraq invasion we needed more troops.  Nevertheless, we invaded with an under-manned, under-equipped force, resulting in countless deaths and injuries, which continue at a quickening pace four years after the invasion. 

• A number of Generals have resigned from active duty so that they can protest how the Commander in Chief is mis-managing the war.

• Bush – who went AWOL as an officer in the Vietnam era – says an Iraqi pullout now does not support our troops.  The Generals say we can show our support for the troops by pulling out.

Our President and Vice President – who dodged the Vietnam era military draft – keep us in a war that 2 out of every 3 Americans say we do not belong.  Despite this, “the Decider” tells us he intends to “stay the course”.

The US spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined.  In order to do this, the Bush administration cuts social programs and medical benefits to wounded Iraqi war veterans.

A recent survey of Europeans shows they consider the US as the greatest threat to world peace – ahead of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. 

In its editorial this past Sunday, the Baltimore Sun, a mainstream newspaper, called for the impeachment of both the President and Vice President.  A recent poll shows half the American citizens want them impeached.

So do I.

We need to take America back from these despots.  We cannot wait for the next presidential election to replace them.  There is far too much at stake.