Article: Dare I say that the Patriot Act should be used on President Bush?

A few weeks ago it was reported that 58 percent of those polled by Newsweek wished that the Bush presidency was over with. I suspect that number would rise to astronomical levels if each and every American were polled.

Logging onto my computer last night after seeing Al Gore win the Oscar for best documentary for his movie "An Inconvenient Truth" the night before, what I saw was the name Bush in the news section of my Yahoo home page. It was then a reaction came over me. That reaction was I am sick and tired of seeing his name in the news. I am sick of him period. I longed for a president that I could believe in and when Al Gore won that Oscar, it only served to remind me of what we could have had.

When it was decided who our president would be by the Supreme Court a term used in the Bush V. Gore decision was used and that was "Irreparable harm to George W. Bush" Well what about the rest of us as we have suffered during these past six going on seven years? To the Supreme Court, thank you so much and that is used in the most sarcastic of tones. The American people have been harmed by your partisan decision and dare I say irreparably so?

During the nineties, I was a Republican (hard to believe, huh) and never voted for former President Clinton, but I can tell you this, I was happy. There was not a strong visceral reaction to seeing Clinton's name in the news. Turning on the TV to watch the news did not have me wanting to throw something at it by seeing either President Clinton or Vice President Gore. In fact it was nice to see our president met with throngs of supporters overseas. Even as a Republican and seeing him met that way, I could say, "That's my president!"

With President Bush it is the complete opposite and it has me longing for a president that I could have pride in.

While no administration is perfect, at least I felt some semblance of security and felt that the Clinton administration was keeping the eye on the ball. I did not walk around thinking that at any given moment an all out nuclear war could occur. I will elaborate on that later within this piece.

Call it the thinking of a naïve person or where some will say that I was not looking behind the curtain, but if one were to look at this 58 percent just recently polled, I suspect that a great majority of them are not looking behind the curtain, but know something is incredibly wrong.

While some will say that President Clinton was screwing around with Monica Lewinsky, to them I will say, he was not screwing around with the safety and security of this nation.

Some may even say that through the Lewinsky matter President Clinton was taking his eye off the ball and to those people I highly suggest that they read this fabulous piece The Real American Traitors by William Rivers Pitt.

They can say to me, but Clinton lied to the American people when it came to the Lewinsky matter, but his lie does not even compare to the many lies told to us by President Bush. As a result of President Bush's insurmountable lies over 3,100 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq and if one believes The Lancet's figures 655,000 innocent Iraqis have lost their lives.

If truth be told, it was through the impeachment of Bill Clinton that led me to leave the Republican Party and switch to the Democratic Party. Through that impeachment I felt that it was the Republican Party who was derailing the people's business out of pure spite and hatred of President Clinton.

Some even mocked then First Lady Hillary Clinton who said it was all a "vast right-wing conspiracy" As it turns out; history does support her past assertions.

Now I will address the nuclear threat that I suppose many feel is a real and credible threat to our nation today. While President Bush is trying to make the case for some action against Iran and their plan of action to enrich uranium, in my opinion the real and credible threat lies with our ally Pakistan. Why Pakistan? As we all know they do have nuclear warheads and a few years ago tested them shortly after India tested theirs.

After 9/11 President Bush stated that he would go after Al Qaeda as well as the Taliban in direct retribution, but with his ill conceived war in Iraq, took his eye off of that ball and allowed both groups to flourish. Good going, President Bush. As an American citizen who craves security, I have to ask myself; what is to stop both groups from getting their hands on Pakistan's nuclear war heads? I think that is a fair question to ask.

Shortly after 9/11 President Bush stated of any country that harbored Al Qaeda that they were "either with us or the terrorists" I would say that allowing Al Qaeda to rebuild within their country that they are with the terrorists. Yet, we refer to this country as our ally. Something does not make sense.

Three days ago, the Washington Post reported, "The Army's highest-ranking officer said Friday that he was unsure whether the U.S. military would capture or kill Osama bin Laden, adding, "I don't know that it's all that important, frankly." I am blinking in total disbelief at that one. In previous columns, I have reminded all that this man who Bush promised to capture 'dead or alive' remains free. I know I keep harping on that, but I guess most Americans just do not care. That or they drank the 'Kool Aid'

Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker even made this statement, "So we get him, and then what?" The only message that should be sent to Gen. Schoomaker is, try selling that to line to 9/11 victims. Those 9/11 victims can tell him what should be done to Osama bin Laden and their voices must be heard and not mocked as Ann Coulter called four 9/11 widows, "witches"

Now we read in a report coming from Sy Hersh that "the U.S. has been "pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight" for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to "stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence." Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of "three Sunni jihadist groups" who are "connected" to al Qaeda" but "want to take on Hezbollah."

Shortly after 9/11, the Patriot Act was voted for by congress and signed into law by President Bush to stop others from funding terrorists. In reading this explosive report that is exactly what the Bush administration has been doing all along. I have a neat idea; why not use the Patriot Act on the Bush administration. Oh, I forgot, both he and those that make up his administration are above the law.
Hersh also wrote, "We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11."

That is our tax money and how dare this president use our hard earned taxes to fund these groups. If that were you and me, we would find ourselves on a one-way trip to Guantanamo Bay and labeled enemy combatants thanks to the Military Commissions Act.
In allowing al Qaeda and the Taliban to flourish as well as funding these groups all of which places our national security at risk, dare I say that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and the rest of them have committed treason? Where are the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act when they are needed most?

Those are only President Bush's foreign policies that I have addressed. The AFP has recently reported that "The gulf between rich and poor in the United States is yawning wider than ever, and the number of extremely impoverished is at a three-decade high, a report out Saturday found." They also reported, "Based on the latest available US census data from 2005, the McClatchy Newspapers analysis found that almost 16 million Americans live in "deep or severe poverty" defined as a family of four with two children earning less than 9,903 dollars -- one half the federal poverty line figure." I swear there is something criminal in allowing that many Americans to slip into deep poverty. Exactly, where is their American dream? It is no where to be found.

I have only touched upon the tip of the ice berg when it concerns the actions and policies of the Bush administration. I do believe if more Americans were actually paying attention that 58 percent who wishes that this presidency was over would sky-rocket. In looking at the actions and policies of this administration, where is the Patriot Act when you need it most?