by Cheryl Abraham
Monday June 9, 2008 was an astoundingly
historic night for the United States of America. On Monday evening a
mild mannered Congressman named Dennis Kucinich took to the floor of
the House of Representatives and began to read a startling document,
a document laying out 35 articles of impeachment against George W. Bush.
read clearly and concisely each of the 35 counts against President Bush.
Occasionally taking sips from a cup, Kucinich didn’t falter, didn’t
take a break, and didn’t seem to tire with the long reading, in fact
right up to the last article Kucinich, with unwavering passion, said
for the 35th time that evening, “In all of these actions
and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary
to his trust as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of
constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and
justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an
impeachable offense warranting removal from office.
35 astounding, criminal, impeachable,
and in many cases monstrous, offenses and where is the media? Where’s
the in-depth reporting on this momentous occasion? Where’s Nancy Pelosi
who has said all along that impeachment was “off the table” because
she had seen no evidence for any criminal wrongdoing by the president
and if anyone had such evidence could they “please let her know”.
The evidence was read for the world to hear last night, it is now a
matter of public record, and it couldn’t be more obvious that George
W. Bush has committed an incredible amount of high crimes and misdemeanors.
But why the media silence? Why aren’t
these articles of impeachment making their way right now to assure that
investigations into these articles begin immediately? Former president
Bill Clinton was investigated and impeached for perjury and obstruction
of justice over lying about an illicit sexual affair in the house, and
then later was cleared in the senate of the charges in only 21 days.
There wasn’t a paper, tabloid, or TV station in this country that
didn’t cover every aspect of the investigation that led up to those
“high crimes and misdemeanors” – what is the explanation for the
echoing silence in the face of the astounding and mountainous amount
of evidence of the crimes of George W. Bush.
Why does George W. Bush get a free ride
in the media – a media that has so obviously silenced this story,
for such heinous crimes such as: torture, falsely leading a nation to
war, rendition, imprisoning children as young as ten years old, spying
on American citizens without a warrant, obliterating the Posse Comitatus
act and on and on. What has changed in the media from non-stop coverage
of the impeachment proceedings of a president in 1999, to the resounding
silence we hear in 2008? Why won’t our “leaders” in D.C. take
the reading of these charges seriously and begin impeachment hearings
now?
John Conyers and others have said that
impeachment hearings could or would jeopardize Obama’s chances to
win in the November election and therefore an election win is of far
more importance than protecting the rule of law and bringing those who”ve
committed unprecedented and historical harm to our nation and the world
to justice, forgetting that the republicans were still able to win the
presidential election after the impeachment of Bill Clinton – charges
which now look completely ludicrous in comparison to the heinous, murderous,
and sick crimes that George W. Bush has willfully committed.
We cannot let the historical significance
of June 9, 2008 go unheard and unacknowledged! We must thank the courageous
work of Dennis Kucinich who has bravely and succinctly laid out all
the crimes of the Bush regime. We must do our utmost to disseminate
this information as quickly as possible to everyone we know. We must
contact the media and hold them accountable for their silence and complicity
in the face of the enormous evidence of the high crimes and misdemeanors
committed on such a massive scale by the Bush regime. We must demand
our “representatives” in D.C. begin impeachment hearings to investigate
all 35 articles of impeachment immediately.
But most of all, we must continue our
efforts to build massive political resistance to the crimes of the Bush
Regime. We must make a firm commitment to repudiate its entire program,
and Drive Out the Bush Regime, because the world really can’t wait.
Cheryl Abraham is a member of World
Can’t Wait from the Seattle area and a regular writer for the World
Can’t Wait web site.