The Existentialist Cowboy: Declaration of Independence

Showing posts with label Declaration of Independence. Show all posts

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Declaring our Independence of George W. Bush

The current government is no longer legitimate. Either the rule of law applies to everyone or it applies to no one! By their actions, the present government has thus made the laws to which you are held to account not applicable to Bush and his anointed in Washington!

This is an intolerable act of high treason and it was done deliberately by this administration upon a panoply of deliberate lies intended to deceive the American people, intended to subvert the rule of law so that Bush could conduct a campaign of economic 'adventures' abroad which have the effect of benefiting an increasingly tiny elite of defense contractors and militarists. The currency of choice is oil!

The people have the right to convene a new people's convention.

Get on with it! Circulate petitions! Convene! Certainly there are talented law experts who are both qualified and love the principles of our founding! Have them draw up a new and bullet-proof charter which affirms principles already violated by Bush and which plugs up any holes that liars might try to exploit!

We hereby fire this government and urge the people of the US to form a new government based upon the principles of the 'rule of law', the equality of everyone under the law, the due process of law, the right of individuals to be free of government snoops and every other violation of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution and every other conceivable violation of the sovereignty of the individual, the right of individuals to be free of any and all government oppression, interference, or restraint in violation of probable cause. It is the right of people to conduct their daily lives and business free of surveillance, free of government interference, free of unwarranted suspicion by elected office holders as well as those who have usurped power in any unlawful manner.

It is time that the American people declared our independence of an illegal, illegitimate, and tyrannical regime!

1. The Government of the United States of America (herein referred to as the Government) has consistently legislated in favor of a carbon-based economy that multiplies corporate profits while disregarding the increases in greenhouse gas concentrations to the point where the future of all of humanity is now seriously threatened by the consequences of global warming.

2. The Government has promoted the use of nuclear powered electric generation plants creating millions of tons of lethal nuclear waste products that can never be safely stored, and creating decommissioned power plants that remain radioactive for eternity.

3. The Government has abused its leadership position in the world by promoting fear-based military force as the international culture of America, rather than a culture of innovation, compassion, respect, and mutual support of humanity.

4. The Government over and over again, and still now is using illegal DU (Depleted Uranium) weapons and devices in direct opposition to signed United Nations agreements, degrading the United States of America to a renegade country, likely to have its leadership regime brought to war crimes trials and capitally punished.

5. The Government has promoted an un-sustainable consumerism culture that multiplies corporate profits while devouring the future’s natural resources and producing mountains, rivers and seas of toxic un-recyclable wastes. The consumer economy never did have a future and still the government promoted it wholeheartedly.

6. The Government has promoted covert military actions and subterfuge that includes traffic in illegal drugs, illegal weapons trade, assassinations, illegal takeovers of corporations and governments, and ruthless competition rather than intelligent cooperation or creative collaboration.

7. The Government has allowed itself to be infiltrated and corrupted by corporate and elite regimes that now direct the branches of Government to serve purposes contrary to the true and proper purpose of government.

8. The Government has turned over control of the currency of the United States of America (the original world currency) to private individuals who manipulate it for their own personal benefit rather than for the benefit of the world.

9. The Government has promoted a system of education that keeps people stupid rather than developing their innate potential and well being so they can create satisfying lives, fulfilling relationships and loving families in the 21st Century. The Government has allowed corporations and organized religions to control school curriculums, and has permitted drugs, gangs and guns to define the school experience for many children.

10. The Government has promoted economy over humanity in a value system that shamelessly sponsors injustice, inequity, and slavery, not only in America but around the world, regarding people in developing nations not as brothers and sisters but as sweatshop slaves for producing cheap clothes and the latest technological devices.

11. The Government has designed cities and towns around automobiles and roads rather than around people, cutting people off from their own community and trapping people in suburbs that are not sustainable.

12. The Government has consistently sponsored an imbalanced budget and has accrued a national debt over one trillion dollars that future generations must somehow pay back, meanwhile losing track of an additional trillion dollars.

13. The Government has greedily destroyed the future of civilization by developing an infrastructure, energy, food, housing and transportation systems relying entirely on consuming vast quantities of hydrocarbons that exist in limited supply, thus building a dangerous house of cards that will now tumble down as oil, gas and coal supplies dwindle. If half of the war budget would have been redirected towards developing renewable power for the last twenty years, the entire country would be oil free by now.

14. The Government has promoted a diet of fat-saturated fast-foods, and hormone and antibiotic saturated beef, pigs, poultry, and dairy products that endanger the health and general well being of its people, ground water and farmlands. The Government has also promoted fishing grounds to be exhausted to near extinction, and promotes deforestation and dependence on pesticides and fertilizers that undermine foreign economies but makes huge profits for corporations.

15. The Government has promoted the so-called patenting and engineering of the genetic designs of life forms to be used for the profit of corporations while endangering the future of the humanity.

16. The Government has promoted the introduction of genetically modified organisms into the general food chain for the profit of corporations while endangering the future of humanity.

17. The Government has used military force, assassination, and political manipulation to overthrow other governments as a desperate attempt to control remaining oil supplies for the purpose of maintaining the illusionary value of a world petro-dollar to assure profit for the corporations rather than assuring a bright future for the people.

18. The Government has promoted a medical establishment that profits pharmaceutical corporations and has blocked the development of less profitable but more humanistic, holistic and intuitive healing modalities.

19. The Government has persistently implemented legislation and presidential orders to override constitutional rights, and has built and staffed over 600 new prison camps across the country prepared to imprison citizens who might be regarded as the enemy of Government.

These and other actions reveal that the United States Government has irredeemably abolished itself by no longer fulfilling its original and true purpose.
--A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

I urge everyone to read the Declaration of Independence again. It states:

"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."

The 'conservative' Bush regime has become "destructive of these ends". A 'conservative' regime should have been 'conserving' the very principles of our founding. Rather, an open and shut legal case can be made of 'High Treason' against Bush personally, high ranking members of his endemically criminal administration, and his co-conspirators in perpetrating various deliberate and well-planned frauds upon the American people, not the least of which is the war against the people of Iraq, a war fought by US troops but on behalf of the barons of big oil and the contractors of the Military/Industrial complex. They alone have benefited. They are likewise to be held to account for war crimes and the violations of US Codes which require for such crimes the death penalty! Are you reading this, you CEOs, you robber baron war mongers and profiteers?

Bush has cited this phony war as justification for his illegal re-write of the Constitution on-the-fly with 'signing statements', an apparatus not mentioned once in the Constitution.

Bush's many and varied deceptions of the American people, his numerous violations and subversions of Constitution law are, in fact and by law, high treason!

Bush put his hand on a black book and lied when he swore to uphold the Constitution which his administration has overtly sought to subvert with acts of high treason.

It is not only the right of the people to ABOLISH this government, it is their civic and patriotic duty to bring the enemies of the Constitution to trial for high treason, war crimes [See US Codes, Title 18, Section 2441], and other capital crimes.

It is also the right of the people under common law to convene a new people's convention which, it is hoped, will draft a new, Bush-proof Constitution, re-affirming those very rights Bush has deliberately subverted and establishing the framework for a new government, a re-birth of freedom when Bush and his gang of war criminals are unseated and brought to trial both in the US and in the Hague.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Bush Crimes That Will Get Him Impeached, Tried, Removed and Tried Again as a Common Criminal

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Watergate leftovers in the Bush administration learned all the wrong lessons. Dick Cheney, for example, learned how to stonewall, lie and obstruct justice. Outright treason he left to underlings who would take the fall for him. More ominously, however, these "leftovers" learned how to pull off a coup d'etat.

Those too young to remember Watergate are tempted to write that the GOP set the stage for impeachment hardball when they impeached Bill Clinton for lying about an act that was not even a crime. Admittedly, that was absurd. But it stands in stark contrast to the numerous real crimes that had been attributed to Richard Nixon during watergate and the numerous real crimes that will be charged and proven against George W. Bush.

It was, rather, the impending impeachment of Nixon that most surely set the stage for Bush, radicalizing the likes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. A recent book, The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office lists only ten real crimes that should, by rights, should get George W. Bush thrown out of an office that he and a criminal gang of Goppers stole twice.

No progress can be made toward removing GWB until reality is acknowledged: Bush is not a legitimate "President", having conspired with prominent Republicans to steal the White House. The following heading is merely one of ten impeachable offenses that must be charged to George W. Bush. My notes follow. At the end this entry is a list of nine remaining offenses. Over the next several weeks, I hope to consider each in turn.

Bush 2000 Election Theft: A Coup d'Etat!

One's party affiliation is revealed by what is most vividly remembered about Florida. Republicans, brainwashed by the slanted media coverage will recall the "swamis divining" the intention of voters. By contrast, I remember most vividly a gang of GOP brownshirts attacking recounters who were merely doing their job, a court mandated civic, patriotic duty to make sure that all the votes were counted. It was not progressives or liberals who first used the word coup d'etat to describe that the nature of that stolen election. It was, rather, Paul Gigot, writing for the very voice of establishment America, the Wall Street Journal, who used that term. The best account of what really happened is found in John Dee's Coup2K.

In Florida, the Bush campaign quietly organized "rent-a-rioters" and flew them to Florida from all over the country. While disingenuously portraying the protests as "spontaneous grass-roots efforts," the Bush campaign sent special squads of GOP Congressional staffers who, in several instances, led violent attacks on Democratic observers, smashed windows, and tried to force their way into vote-counting rooms. This was not civil disobedience intended to show disagreement, but a concerted attack designed to threaten and intimidate. ³⁸

Shortly after the election, the Bush campaign began a two-pronged program to import as many protesters into Florida as they could. The first prong was done openly: phone-trees reached out across the country to coax party loyalists to head down and fight Al Gore's "theft" of the election. This much is standard political fare. What was unusual was the more discreet second prong.

Under the direction of House Republican Whip Tom DeLay (of Texas, mind you), staff members of GOP Congressmen were quietly approached with offers of all-expenses-paid trips to Florida, "all paid for by the Bush campaign." ³⁹ In addition to staying in swanky beach-side hotels, part of their reward would be an exclusive Thanksgiving Day party in Ft. Lauderdale.

According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 200 Congressional staffers signed on, with many of them staying in Florida for over a week. "Once word leaked out," said one GOP operative, "everybody wanted in." ⁴⁰
-John Dee, Coup2K

That news coverage was inadequate accounts for the fact that these events are all but forgotten. They have certainly not gotten the post-mortem they so richly deserve. The attacks consisted of felonious assaults and battery, crimes aggravated by the fact that the violence was directed against public officials performing their sworn duties.

According to US Codes, the GOP attacks are nothing less than seditious.

Section 2384. Seditious conspiracy
If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
Section 2383. Rebellion or insurrectionWhoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
US Codes

Before the phrase was taken up by Paul Gigot, the perpetrators themselves referred to their actions as a coup d'etat! What is a coup d'etat but an illegal, unconstitutional seizure of power from a legitimate government? In the wake of 911, such an attack must be considered to have been a terrorist attack.

Why have not charges been brought against these thugs and the Republican politicians [Bush and the Bush campaign] who financed them?

The Miami protesters who were paid by the Bush recount committee were:

Matt Schlapp, a Bush staffer who was based in Austin and received $4,276.09;

Thomas Pyle, a staff aide to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, $456;

Michael Murphy, a DeLay fund-raiser, $935.12;

Garry Malphrus, House majority chief counsel to the House Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice, $330;

Charles Royal, a legislative aide to Rep. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. $391.80;

Kevin Smith, a former GOP House staffer, $373.23.

Three of the Miami protesters are now members of Bush’s White House staff, the Miami Herald reported last month. They include Schlapp, who is now a special assistant to the president; Malphrus, who is now deputy director of the president’s Domestic Policy Council; and Joel Kaplan, another special assistant to the president.

[See Miami Herald, July 14, 2002]

Can't happen here? It did! Dees continues:

Other "Congress Gang" platoons were sent to Fort Lauderdale, and some of the same Congressional staffers were also involved in a tense confrontation with Democratic volunteers in West Palm Beach. The group, which included Rev. Al Sharpton, was cornered while trying to retrieve some campaign signs. Things got quite tense and heated words were exchanged, but no violence erupted.

In the end, the secret GOP effort was so successful that at many demonstrations, GOP protesters outnumbered Democratic supporters 10 to one.

When it was all over, the Republican rent-a-rioters got their lavish Thanksgiving Day party, with plenty of free food and booze. Wayne Newton crooned "Danke Schoen" for the crowd, until screaming female fans stormed the stage. "Danke schoen, darling, danke schoen. Save those lies, darling, don't explain...." ⁴⁶ But the real highlight of the evening was a conference call from Bush and Cheney. Instead of chastising the goon squad for their violent tactics, the candidates thanked them for their work. They even cracked mocking jokes about their rivals. ⁴⁷

The judicious application of "spontaneous" protests and mob violence has always been a key feature of CIA destabilization. Such operations help put political pressure on the target, make for good TV propaganda, and are sometimes used to intentionally provoke a crackdown that is then widely publicized, often through journalists on the Agency payroll.

For example, the CIA's plan for the 1953 coup in Iran called for "stage[d] political demonstrations under religious cover," to include "staged attacks" on Muslim religious leaders which would then be falsely blamed on the Mossadegh government. ⁴⁸

In their Chilean operations against Salvador Allende during the early '70s, one of the CIA's greatest propaganda victories was "The March of Empty Pots." Thousands of women marched through the streets banging empty cooking pots with ladles to protest food shortages. In reality, the shortages were artificially induced through a secret campaign of economic sabotage coordinated by the CIA along with ITT, Anaconda Copper and other multinationals. Many of the marching "housewives" were actually the spouses of wealthy anti-Allende partisans who were suffering little. Armed fascist gangs backed by the CIA marched along with the women, then provoked violent clashes with the police. Stories of police "attacking women with empty pots" flooded the world press. Dozens of other protests were organized by CIA front groups in order to artificially escalate tensions and portray Allende as having little support or control. ⁴⁹

In 1990, during Bulgaria's first post-Communist elections, professional agitators, backed by millions in covert financing from the US, organized massive street protests that ultimately succeeded in unseating the duly elected government. Even though the renamed Communist party had won the overwhelming majority in voting which western observers on the scene widely agreed had been fair, the US (through the CIA) used the mobs to intimidate and ultimately hound officials from office. ⁵⁰ -John Dee, Coup2K

Propaganda plays an important role in the post-coup period. According to Coup D'Etat - A Practical Handbook by Zionist headliner Edward Luttwak, the goal is not to explain the legitimacy of the coup d'etat. It is, rather, the fact that it is a fait accompli. This advice was taken to heart by James Baker and Bushco. Not concerned with the moral high-ground. Bushco worked overtly to derail the recount, to stop them while Bush was still ahead.

Clearly, Bush won the propaganda war, convincing just enough that it was Bush who was on the side of the law when, in fact, his thugs had just committed acts of seditious conspiracy, violations of US criminal codes. this was achieved through constant repetition, a tactic advocated by Luttwak.

The "Florida Game" is not over. Space and time prevents my addressing the similar issues clouding Bush's "victory" over John Kerry. There is evidence that the White House is still at work planning future election thefts in order to maintain what Rove had called a "permanent Republican majority". That makes no sense of course. If the GOP truly had a majority, it would not find it necessary to steal elections and disenfranchise voters not inclined to vote for GOP crooks.

Michael Winship: Keep Out the Vote
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Michael Winship

It's a John Grisham novel, this whole scandal swirling about the Justice Department. Like "The Pelican Brief" maybe, in which the motive for the murder of two Supreme Court judges of disparate ideologies remains mysterious until a plucky law student turns up an obscure case on appeal that would ravage protected wetlands for oil and gas development. Mayhem ensues.

In other words, nothing is as it first seems and it can take a while before some semblance of truth emerges. Especially in Washington, home of the scheme and the fraud. You have to peel back the layers of the onion, just as that plucky law student did (pluckily played in the movie version by plucky Julia Roberts).

What's the real motive for knocking off those eight, now nine, maybe more US attorneys -- Republican appointees all -- apparently replaced for insufficient fealty to the Bushie party line? In part, the truth may be lurking in the upcoming 2008 elections.

The White House, Attorney General Gonzales, and the Justice Department have tried to hide their real reasons, citing "performance concerns" as the reason for firing the prosecutors and blaming various underlings for mishandling the dismissals, then throwing them to the wolves, too -- the latest being Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who announced his resignation Monday. McNulty is the guy who indiscreetly told a Congressional hearing that the person behind the dismissal of Arkansas US Attorney Bud Cummins was Karl Rove, who wanted Cummins replaced with his buddy Tim Griffin. Oops.

Scratch the surface of anything vaguely nefarious at 1600 Pennsylvania and sooner or later you're likely to hit The Rovester. His most famous bit of dark wizardry is to take a negative about his own guy and turn it into a positive -- or, rather, a negative against the other side. In 2004, Rove defused rumors about the president's blotchy National Guard career by orchestrating attacks on John Kerry's legitimate Vietnam combat record. The Swift Boat Vets for Truth set sail and the rest is revisionist history. Klassic Karl.

The GOP, apparently plans to rule not by the "consent of the governed" but by repeated coups. That will be easier in theory than in fact. Nevertheless, the conditions for a Coup d'Etat seemed ripe in the year 2000. The GOP, as to be expected of a tight knit criminal conspiracy, was prepped to strike, to seize power illegitimately and opportunistically. Corporate sponsors expected a return on investment from the fascist state that the GOP leadership and its sponsors had envisioned. Luttwak outlines the conditions propitious for coups d'etat:

The social and economic conditions of the target country must be such as to confine political participation to a small fraction of the population."
The target state must be substantially independent and the influence of foreign powers in its internal political life must be relatively limited.
The target state must have a political centre. If there are several centres these must be identifiable and they must be politically, rather than ethnically, structured. If the state is controlled by a non-politically organized unit, the coup can only be carried out with its consent or neutrality.

Still from Luttwak, a description of a possible "second" coup from within the government following the election theft. It takes the form of a "Palace Revolution" and one sees in this the hand of Cheney, Rove and the insiders who consolidated, with the bureaucracies of government itself, the power of a right wing, fascist revolution.

The importance of this development lies in the fact that if the bureaucrats are linked to the leadership, an illegal seizure of power must take the form of a 'Palace Revolution' and it essentially concerns the manipulation of the person of the ruler. He can be forced to accept to policies or advisors, he can be killed or held captive, but whatever happens the Palace Revolution can only be conducted from the 'inside', and by 'insiders'...
--Coup D'Etat - A Practical Handbook, Edward Luttwak

The months and weeks ahead are crucial for the future of America and, until America collapses of the incompetence of its ruling cabal, the world. There is much to do. The illegitimate regime must be ousted. An ongoing war crime must be brought to an end. Reparations must be agreed upon. War criminals must be brought to trial. Legitimacy and confidence must be restored. Is America up to it? Has Luttwak already described the strategy of a possible "counter" coup?

"...If we were revolutionaries, wanting to destroy the power of some of the political forces, and the long and often bloody process of revolutionary attrition can achieve this. Our purpose is, however, quite different: we want to seize power within the present system, and we shall only stay in power if we embody some new status quo supported by those very forces which a revolution may seek to destroy. Should we want to achieve fundamental social change we can do so after we have become the government. This is perhaps a more efficient method (and certainly a less painful one) than that of a classic revolution. [emphases in original]

"Though we will try to avoid all conflict with the 'political' forces, some of them will almost certainly oppose a coup. But this opposition will largely subside when we have substituted our new status quo for the old one, and can enforce it by our control of the state bureaucracy and security forces. We shall then be carrying out the dual task of imposing our control on the machinery of state while at the same time using it to impose our control on the country at large. [emphasis added] ...

"Our strategy, therefore, must be guided by two principal considerations: the need for maximum speed in the transition phase, and the need to neutralize fully the forces which could oppose us both before and immediately after the coup. If, in the operational phase of the coup, we are at any stage delayed, then our essential weakness will emerge: we shall probably acquire a definite political coloration, and this in turn will lead to a concentration of those forces which oppose the tendency we represent (or are thought to represent). As long as the execution of the coup is rapid, and we are cloaked in anonymity, no particular political faction will have either a motive, or an opportunity, to oppose us. ...[A] delay will lose us our principal advantage: the voluntary neutrality of 'the wait and see' elements, and the involuntary neutrality of those forces which need time to concentrate and deploy for action."

The words of two revolutionaries should inspire true patriots to action --Thomas Jefferson and Che Guevarra. It was Jefferson who wrote what is still a revolutionary manifesto: the Declaration of Independence:

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 to 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.
--Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence

And from Che Guevara:

When the forces of oppression come to maintain themselves in power against established law; peace is considered already broken.
--Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare

Clearly Bush, who seized power with both chicanery and violence, continues to rule illegitimately, unconstitutionally, unlawfully. The Bush regime is an outlaw regime. Bush does not merely break the laws of the land, his coup continues to subvert the rule of law, the very principles of our founding. The "peace", therefore, is already broken. Bush is at war with the people of the United States. He is at war with the Constitution, a people's charter, duly ratified, and in case law, statute, and Preamble, the Supreme Law of the Land.
Think of the Iraq war as a war waged by US troops on behalf of big oil companies and Bush cronies. Think of huge corporations literally buying, perhaps leasing, the resources of the United States to wage war or engage in other nefarious activities for corporate interests. Jack Abramoff was but the tip of an iceberg. Under Bush, there is not even the pretense that the US government, the executive branch especially, represents the interests of a free electorate. Your government has been hijacked.

Democrats See Chance to Fault Deficits and Pork
By Elizabeth Williamson and Lori Montgomery

Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 29, 2007; Page A19

An industrial lubricants program, bus replacement -- and the Grout Museum. A $12 million earmark in an emergency defense bill for "industrial mobilization" on the Iowa border.

Democrats have pork spending on the menu for their grilling of Jim Nussle, President Bush's pick as White House budget director. Nussle's confirmation hearings will focus on the former congressman's pursuit of earmarks for Iowa, as well as ballooning deficits during his tenure as chairman of the House Budget Committee.
...

Future installments. Each heading is an impeachable offense.

2. Lied about Iraq to Congress, the Public, and the United Nations.
3. 9-11 Cover-Up and Obstruction of Justice.
4. Violated Rights of Citizens including Habeas Corpus.
5. NSA Program to spy on Citizens without Warrant.
6. Violated International Treaties Including Geneva Convention.
7. Actively Encouraged, as a Policy, Use of Torture.
8. Gross Negligence on Hurricane Katrina.
9. Iraq Contract Corruption--Bremer "Lost" $8 billion in cash, sole source awards, and gross negligence in managing the peace.
10. Stole Ohio election in 2004.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Why the Bush regime is illegitimate

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

-John Stuart Mill

In his classic essay "On Liberty", John Stuart Mill deals with the issue of "civil liberties" -not the metaphysical issue of "free will". Mill deals with threats to liberty from within the institutions of democracy itself. This issue is especially relevant today, a time when widespread domestic wiretapping and surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a measure intended to prevent the abuse of liberty by government, a measure intended to preserve the very ownership of government by people.

A time, however, came in the progress of human affairs, when men ceased to think it a necessity of nature that their governors should be an independent power, opposed in interest to themselves.
- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

With those words, Mill is off and running.

The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar, particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England. But in old times this contest was between subjects, or some classes of subjects, and the government.
...

That (it might seem) was a resource against rulers whose interests were habitually opposed to those of the people. What was now wanted was, that the rulers should be identified with the people; that their interest and will should be the interest and will of the nation.

-- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

...creating the desire, the need, for a government "...of the people" themselves.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Preamble, U.S. Constitution

The preamble to the US Constitution is, arguably, the most important clause in the entire document. Historically, it must rank with the Magna Carta, establishing up front the source of US sovereignty: the people themselves. It asserts its own legitimacy and the philosophical basis for the legitimacy of government itself. It defines a revolution based upon the ideas of Montesquieu, John Locke, Rousseau and, of course, Voltaire.

As important as the preamble to the US Constitution, is the still revolutionary principle articulated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence:

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 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.

Government is no longer "legitimate" by default or by raw power. Legitimacy and sovereignty reside with the people themselves. The apparatus of government is owned by the people and those governments violating those principles may be overthrown -by revolution, if necessary.

A special note about Voltaire is appropriate. Voltaire's life illustrates those principles that many of us growing up in a free society take for granted. Voltaire lived most of his life in or near Geneva or nearby Ferney in France. He lived always in fear of being arrested by the French regime where all power resided in the King and Church. The King's will was law made "legitimate" by "The Church" which recognized a "divine right of kings". Voltaire's France was a society in which the King supported the authority of the Catholic Church in France and vice versa. The people were controlled, however, only so long as the masses believed in both the divinity of the Church and in the "the divine right of kings". "Heretical writing" as well as his "upstart" attitude had often landed Voltaire in jail. From Ferney, he could always beat a hasty retreat into Switzerland just down the road.

The repression of dissent, of minorities, of "subversives" is nothing new. Mill reminds us of the plight of Socrates, arguably the father of Western Philosophy itself:

Mankind can hardly be too often reminded, that there was once a man named Socrates, between whom and the legal authorities and public opinion of his time, there took place a memorable collision. Born in an age and country abounding in individual greatness, this man has been handed down to us by those who best knew both him and the age, as the most virtuous man in it; while we know him as the head and prototype of all subsequent teachers of virtue, the source equally of the lofty inspiration of Plato and the judicious utilitarianism of Aristotle, "i maestri di color che sanno," the two headsprings of ethical as of all other philosophy. This acknowledged master of all the eminent thinkers who have since lived -- whose fame, still growing after more than two thousand years, all but outweighs the whole remainder of the names which make his native city illustrious -- was put to death by his countrymen, after a judicial conviction, for impiety and immorality. Impiety, in denying the gods recognized by the State; indeed his accuser asserted (see the "Apologia") that he believed in no gods at all. Immorality, in being, by his doctrines and instructions, a "corrupter of youth." Of these charges the tribunal, there is every ground for believing, honestly found him guilty, and condemned the man who probably of all then born had deserved best of mankind, to be put to death as a criminal.

- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

In a post-911 world, we simply must remember the philosophical source of our own founding. It does not serve our purpose here to pinpoint a specific time when people began to think differently about how and by whom they should be governed. However, two significant events come to mind: the signing of the Magna Carta and the English Civil War, to cite just two examples. Indeed, in 1649, in an historic assertion of the rights of Parliament, King Charles I of England was executed. According to Mill, government itself ceased to be the seat of sovereign power. More accurately, I would say that it never had been. But it required a realization by people that they had always been the sovereign. Upon this realization, "governors" ceased to be independent powers; magistrates of the State became delegates of the sovereign i.e. the people themselves. Their power was revocable, or as Simon Schama said in his "History of Britain", even a King could be "brought to book."

The American Declaration of Independence put that principle in writing.

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.
-Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence

The aim of early libertarians was to limit the power of the ruler over those governed. Mill understood that even governments of freely elected executives and legislators often become unaccountable and, as we have seen recently, autocratic. He understood the need to limit the power of elected governments. Because even majorities can be tyrannical, Mill understood the necessity of limiting the powers that even freely elected, democratic governments, may exercise over minorities and individuals. His work is more relevant now than ever.

If minorities have rights today, due credit must be given to J.S. Mill. No society is expected to tolerate genuinely criminal behavior. But, for Mill, a free people, in a free society, may not tolerate a majority rule which seeks to interfere with or suppress minorities or non-conforming behaviors indiscriminately simply because a "majority" may be prejudiced, mis-informed, or simply tyrannical and arbitrary.

Mill understood that the democratic ideal -a government of the people - is often not the case in fact. Those exerting the power of the government -elected officials, bureaucrats, the judiciary - develop their own interests, influenced by special interests and their constituencies in ways that are at odds with the interests and liberties of individuals, minorities, or, indeed, the greater good of the society as a whole. Indeed, a majority may become tyrannical when its interests are at odds with the legitimate interests of a minority or an individual. Mill sees no difference between a tyranny of one and a tyranny of many. A majority running roughshod over the rights of individuals and minorities is no less a tyrant because it is a majority, because it is elected, or because it is elected by a majority.

What then are the powers that society may legitimately exercise over the individual?

Mill answers:

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.

-J.S. Mill, On Liberty

James Madison -called the "Father of the Constitution" -anticipated Mill's ideas in his draft of the Bill of Rights -the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Implicit in the Bill of Rights is the recognition that the power of the state is a blunt instrument. Abused, it can oppress and repress individuals and minorities alike. The Bill of Rights addresses this issue by guaranteeing "due process of law", limiting state power over individuals and groups, guaranteeing that groups and individuals may speak and worship freely.

The Fourth Amendment specifically is a promise that our government made to us in its very founding:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

-Fourth Amendment, Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution

The Bush administration has waged a war of assaults upon the Fourth Amendment. The "Sneak and Peak" provisions of the Patriot Act, for example, allowed agents of the federal government to come into your home, to search your residence, and leave without even telling you about it. Initially, it was unclear whether Bush administration intended to prosecute the War on Terrorism as justification for his subversive campaign against the Bill of Rights --or was he willing to abrogate our most precious freedoms in pursuit of a phantom menace --terrorism? Bush has not waged war in defense of freedom but against it.

Nat Hentoff would later write that by "...a stunning 309-118 vote, the House of Representatives on July 22, reflecting a growing apprehension about the USA Patriot act around the country, voted to deny funding for a key section of that act. Before that move, at least 142 cities and towns and three state legislatures, have passed strongresolutions against the Patriot Act." Hentoff also reminded that the issue of warrantless "search and seizure" was among many British abuses listed by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. It was, he wrote, "... a precipitating cause of the American Revolution."

Many politicians, eager to consolidate the powers of government, seem eager to invent powers that have simply never existed in American tradition. Executive privilege is just one of many powers that simply do not exist, were never articulated by the founders, or, in a worst case, blatant inventions. Let's make it also clear that there are no "inherent powers" or "implicit" authorizations" that would, in any way, overturn, limit, or repeal the Fourth Amendment or any other portion of the US Constitution or the Bill of Rights. A President may not cite "inherent powers" that will, in any way, expand his/her own powers beyond those enumerated in the Constitution. A President may not create various and asundry powers under the cover of "executive privilege", a notion so imprecise as to be utterly meaningless.

It is not only an executive who is constrained. Congress may not, cannot overrule the Fourth Amendment with statutory law. Constitutional Law is supreme and provisions in the Bill of Rights are valid until amended as set out in the Constitution itself. Widespread domestic surveillance is illegal whatever is done by Congress ex post facto -and until the Constitution is amended, it will remain illegal. At last, ex post facto laws, themselves, are expressly forbidden by the Constitution.

Mill is all the more remarkable for his insight into issues that remain contemporary. In every literate criticism of "special interest groups", PAC's, the gun lobby, the tobacco lobby, the Military/Industrial Complex, one sees the lasting influence of John Mill.

The regime of George W. Bush has not only corrupted the American government, it has assaulted the very principles upon which the United States was founded. Right wing, "neo-conservative" ideas are a throwback to Medieval Europe, in this case espousing the autocratic rule of one man, a man who could not and has not won a majority of the popular vote.

Since 911, however, the administration of George W. Bush has taken abuses of the US Constitution to new levels. These are "...broad based assaults on basic Constitutional rights". Checks and balances are not working even as the Bush administration attacks the very concept of an independent judiciary.

The American GOP has indulged a level of corruption and state-sponsored crime completely unprecedented in American history. Bush, his base, and the GOP learned all the wrong lessons from Watergate. They learned how not to get caught. The Republican party and the regime of George W. Bush continue to advocate powers for the office of "President" never envisioned by the founders, powers that never existed.

The regime of George W. Bush continues to conspire with corporate sponsors to subvert the authority of the "people", who, alone under our Constitution, are sovereign. Bush and his monied sponsors assumed arbitrary powers and authorities that simply do not and have never existed. This is most notable with regard to the round up and detention of "terrorist suspects" over which Bush assumes dictatorial and arbitrary powers of life and death. Bush has no such authority and must never have it. Bush, has in fact, reserved for himself the power to order the arbitrary executions, murders of American citizens. If you should think such arbitrary powers are reserved for for use against on those persons who are easily identified as "Middle Eastern" or "Muslim", then I pity you. The Bush doctrine, therefore, is a poke in the eye to American values, the Constitution, indeed, the very concept of the Rule of Law. There is a word for such rule: tyranny.

On Liberty is essential reading for anyone interested in law, the principles of government, political science, political philosophy, indeed, freedom itself. It is also essential reading for anyone interested in learning about the intellectual underpinnings of Anglo-American civil liberties. It is, likewise, essential reading for anyone wishing to restore to America the blessings of a free society.

Some additional resources: