"There is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?"

Either this government --that of Bush and his co-conspirators --is legitimate or it is not! If it is not, then, by definition and law, nothing following from it is lawful. Unlawful regimes may get away with issuing decrees but without "legitimacy", decrees are unlawful. Dictatorships, therefore, find it necessary to enforce decrees with tanks and arms.

Bush's every signing statement is in itself unlawful and doubly so if his regime is illegitimate. I submit, moreover, that because Bush's regime is illegitimate i.e, unlawful, no law passed by this Congress is validated by Bush's signature, required by law to become law! That, of course, likewise includes his every signing statement, his every decree, his every order to the men and women who comprise the armed forces of this once great land. All are unlawful.

Hit Tip: Blue Ibis

The US Constitution established the sovereignty of the people of the US. That means the government works for you --not the other way 'round. The Bush government, however, would not have it that way. It is typical of dictatorships, totalitarian regimes and monarchies that "people" serve the government.

If the Bush regime is not legitimate, then Bush is not really "President" nor can the legislature represent you Constitutionally in the absence of a legitimate executive. Bush, meanwhile, has worked assiduously to marginalize the legislative branch and rob them of Constitutionally mandated oversight authority. All are characteristics of Bush's illegitimacy, his lawlessness, his contempt for the rule of law.

Bush is nothing more than an enforcement puppet of the Military/Industrial complex, itself complicit in the Iraq war --a criminal fraud perpetrated upon the people of the US, the people of Iraq, US allies, and the peoples of the world. The defense department budget is a deliberate fraud --thinly disguised bribes to defense contractors and Bush's corporate sponsors.

I proposed almost a year ago that the people of the US convene a new national convention. The people have that right. I also wonder what might happen if a guy like George Soros and other folk provided the underwriting it would take to set up an alternative direct election of the President and the members of Congress authorized by the new national convention. This mechanism must ensure a paper trail confirming EVERY vote. Thus the very crookedness of the GOP might bring down the crooked establishment it created. There is no way to argue with a valid, verifiable beyond any reasonable doubt vote! It could be done!

Where does it say in the Constitution that only the existing parities may finance and hold an election? Where does it say that a new Constitutional convention cannot authorize such an election? In fact, thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence gives the people that right.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Likewise, the preamble to our existing Constitution gives us precisely that right by declaring that the people of the United States are sovereign, that "government" rules ONLY by their consent. That is undeniably true whether the fascist cabal in Washington likes it or not! It is time THEY be overthrown and replaced with a legitimate government of the people!

From the comments to my last article:

I think the point that reverberates the most is this, "It will take a revolution to change things." Just as Keith Olbermann expressed in his lament about the Military Commissions Act, and the suspension of habeas corpus. "Depriving us of trial by jury was actually considered sufficient cause to start a war of independence." Such an undertaking was perhaps easier in 1776 than today - the oppressor is no longer across the Atlantic - but no less necessary.

--Sadbuttre

How will the revolution be fought? My friend, who uses the cyberspace moniker "Fuzzflash" pointed the way.

But none of these people had access to cyberspace, like we do. Tommy Paine would have ovulated on the spot, or at any rate have gotten inordinately excited if similar pamphleteering potential were available to he and his dissident peers.

In a way, the smoke signals of cyberspace are all we've got left.

He continues with a reminder that American suburbs are short on public or town squares, plazas, in fact, any place where revolution might be fomented. It's almost as if it were by design. Certainly, the small towns prior to having been Walmartirized, were big on meeting places, most commonly a town square just across the street from the courthouse.

...“carnival, in Rabelais work and age, is associated with the collectivity; for those attending a carnival do not merely constitute a crowd; rather the people are seen as a whole, organized in a way that defies socioeconomic and political organization (Clark and Holquist 302). According to Bakhtin, “[A]ll were considered equal during carnival. Here, in the town square, a special form of free and familiar contact reigned among people who were usually divided by the barriers of caste, property, profession, and age” (Bakhtin 10). At carnival time, the unique sense of time and space causes the individual to feel he is a part of the collectivity, at which point he ceases to be himself. It is at this point that, through costume and mask, an individual exchanges bodies and is renewed. At the same time there arises a heightened awareness of one’s sensual, material, bodily unity and community (Clark and Holquist 302).” From wiki

Will Youtube take the place of courthouse squares?

Imagine what would happen if millions of Americans took to the streets wearing masks of Bush and Reagan and Nixon et al. demanding that BushCo bow to our constitution. Flash mob assembles, demonstrates peacefully and loudly. Clips go straight to You Tube.

Perhaps the combined and allied corporofascists have outsmarted themselves. Tiananmen Square played into the hands of the totalitarians for whom it was an easy target, a killing field.

In the weeks ahead, I hope to take a look at successful revolutions --Ghandi's India, Walesa's Poland, the Velvet Revolution et al. The future of the US is on the line. If the people will not stand up for Democracy, Bush and his moneyed ilk will only get worse and more outrageous. Will Americans allow this man of no talent and no humanity to get away with robbing the nation of what had already been gained at great cost? Will Americans be pacified with a timid, compromise Democratic party?

It is time to recreate a Democracy. It is time to hold alternative elections. It is time to drive the crooks from Washington.

Bertrand Russell, in one of his "unpopular" essays, outlined three possible futures for mankind. Our complete obliteration by nuclear war was one of them.

An update:

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 10 — When state Democratic leaders from around the country meet this weekend in Vermont, the California chairman, Art Torres, expects to be peppered with the sort of questions that have been clogging his in-box for weeks.

What is this about Republicans trying to change the way Electoral College votes are allocated in California? Is there a countereffort by Democrats in the works? What does it mean for presidential candidates?

Frustrated by a system that has marginalized many states in the presidential election process, or seeking partisan advantage, state lawmakers, political party leaders and voting rights advocates across the country are stepping up efforts to change the rules of the game, even as the presidential campaign advances.

In California, this has led to a nascent Republican bid to apportion the state’s electoral votes by Congressional district, not by statewide vote, in a move that most everyone agrees would benefit Republican candidates. Democrats in North Carolina are mulling a similar move, because it would help Democrats there.

In more than a dozen states, the efforts have also led to a game of leapfrog in the scheduling of presidential primary and caucus dates. Most recently, on Thursday, Republicans in South Carolina moved their primary to January from February to get ahead of Florida’s. ...

--States Try to Alter How Presidents Are Elected

This is how the GOP has managed to rise to power! They CHEAT! It all began in Texas with one Tom DeLay.

Additional resources

• Dick Cheney Lied About His Whereabouts on 911
• The Threat of U.S. Fascism: An Historical Precedent
• In '94, Cheney Warned of US Quagmire in Iraq
• War in Iraq, Revolution in America
• DynCorp Sex Abuse Scandal
• Halliburton Profits

The Existentialist Cowboy

Conservative Lies
Indict Bush
Why Conservatives Hate America
GOP Crime Syndicate
Iraq

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