Congress Can't Violate the 4th Amendment Either
The Presidential oath of office. To wit:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Of all his misdeeds, crimes, betrayals of trust, lies, repudiation of treaties, illegal invasions, subversions of democracy, human rights violations, secret prisons, negligence homicides, Guantanamo Bay, abuses of power, torturing, cover-ups, and other sociopathic behavior probably no single issue has called for the impeachment of President Bush with clearer legal justification and universal understanding than his spying on private American citizens. There is a law against it, that governs us all, including most of all, the President, the nation's highest law-enforcement official; to wit:
The Constitution of the United States of America
Amendment 4
"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."
Bush's persistent claim has been that spying on American citizens falls under FISA, The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, "...prescribing procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence information between or among foreign powers..."
Is there some part of the word "foreign" that Bush and his enablers don't understand? FISA's purview distinctly does not include private American citizens, as thousands of lawyers, scholars, many in law enforcement and other levels of government, as well as some from right inside the White House, including former Attorney General Ashcroft, have agreed.
Like the President, every member of the Congress of the United States of America, Bush's minions, and all federal officials has also made a required oath to the US Constitution". To wit:
" I,________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.''
As a matter of faith and compliance to this oath it is their Constitutional duty to impeach, try, and if convicted, remove Bush from office for his massive serial criminal violation of the 4th Amendment and consequently his own oath.
However Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Congressional leadership, and the GOP members who have taken that oath, have "taken impeachment off the table" and thereby ignored and neglected their Constitutionally-required duty. That is a clear violation of their own oath which prescribes in turn their own impeachment. I just can't see it any other way. Can you?
It is no small matter that the United States Supreme Court, who take the same oath, have ventured no opinion about this 4th Amendment violation at all....one way or the other. And, if I'm not mistaken determining the Consitutionality of government laws and actions is their primary Constitutional duty and responsibility. They have taken no action at all. Huh?
In addition all other federal and law enforcement officials etc. stand in violation of their own oath and the "highest law of the land" by allowing this criminal program, and all of its conspirators, to continue unfettered.
This is an amazing across-the-board violation of the US Constitution by virtually the entire elected/appointed US government. How could anyone argue otherwise? (Please do so in your comments.)
Of course I recognize that it's unrealistic to expect all (or any?) of America's top 600 elected public-servants to acknowledge their own complicity in this crime, and resign, impeach each other or whatever. Ain't gonna happen.
So utterly ridiculous is such a notion in fact, that I doubt that it ever occurred to the Founding Fathers that the entire government, to a man, would acquiesce to and conspire in such a blatantly irresponsible precise violation of the law of the US Constitution, the 4th Amendment or their own oath. Even if they had thought of it, how they could have made provision for the removal of the entire government is hard to imagine anyway.
To me the strangest aspect of this whole sordid affair is that the Congress (before 2006 to date) was angry and indignant, not because Bush brazenly and boldly violated the law, but because he didn't check in with them to get their "permission" to carry on his illegal wiretapping and spying program.
But when I read the 4th Amendment (you may refer to it above) it doesn't state therein that Congress can give the President, or anybody else, "permission" to violate the 4th Amendment law. Nor may they forgive anyone for such a violation of the law. Nor may they violate the law themselves.
What can be done about this I cannot venture or envision? It is a confounding, maddening situation and a true Constitutional crisis if ever there was one. While thousands of knowledgeable Americans, and millions of others, see it this way there doesn't seem to be any way they can compel those who have repudiated their oath to honor it and abide by the law or resign and go to prison taking the criminal White House gang along with them.
How can it be that the American people and the US Constitution, without advocates, are helpless and powerless in the face of this utter lawless anarchy that afflicts the government?
Can there be any law at all if this is the "highest law of the land".
koolmuse
anonymousource.com
