An Attack on Democracy
By Dr.Robert Abele
Yubanet.com
Friday 20 August 2004
The November presidential election is arguably the most important one in at least fifty years. As citizens, we are being asked whether or not to "continue the course" that we are on as a country. Stated another way, we are being asked whether or not we want to keep the current regime in power in the White House. However, a better question for this election year is why would we want to keep the Bush administration in power, given their misdeeds these past three years? "Misdeeds" is perhaps an understatement, but whatever term one uses, the important case to be made is that the Bush White House is the most corrupt one we have seen in recent history. By "corrupt," I mean that the actions and policies of the Bush administration have been unconstitutional, undemocratic in principle, unethical, and/or illegal. Although the misdeeds that characterize this administration are legion, I will limit my examples for sake of space.
I. Unconstitutional Acts
James Madison, the author of our Constitution, stated that this document is a sacred trust between the people and the government. Thus, "every [government] usurpation [of power over the people] is an encroachment on the private rights not of one, but of all." How has the Bush administration encroached upon the "rights of all"?
The USA PATRIOT Act - This is the legislation pushed through the Congress immediately after 9/11/01 by Mr. Bush and Mr. Ashcroft. When the Judicial branch of government drafts legislation that allows itself permission to spy on its citizens, often without warrant and without judicial oversight, and to search and seize the property of its citizens with the same lack of warrant and oversight, then manipulates that proposal through Congress instead of relying on the usual period for reading and debating the law, our democracy is in peril. One cannot argue that it is needed to "protect us from terrorism," not only because one cannot preserve rights by rejecting them, but also because the dismantling of our rights-based system is precisely what the terrorists seek to do! Here are the main rights under attack by PATRIOT:
* Probable Cause (the Fourth Amendment) - First, PATRIOT allows governmental spying on U.S. citizens for "suspicion" only, which is a direct contravention of the Fourth Amendment requirement for probable cause. Second, Section 214 states that no warrant is required for use of devices designed to monitor incoming and outgoing phone numbers from citizens phones; just "relevance to an ongoing terrorist investigation;"
* Privacy (the Fourth Amendment) - First, Section 206 allows "roving wiretaps." Thus, if the FBI is investigating someone who uses a library computer, any person who also uses that computer can be monitored by the FBI without their knowledge or consent. Second, Section 213 permits "sneak-and-peek" searches of one's home and/or office by Federal agents, without notifying the person they were there. Further, this Section allows delayed notification of search warrant, and prohibits the person searched from monitoring what was searched or what was taken'
* Checks and Balances between the Judicial, Executive, and Legislative branches of government, which provide a guarantee that governmental power will not be consolidated or abused by one branch: First, Section 206 rules that no judicial review is permitted of roving wiretaps. Second, Section 215 requires a judge to court order seizures of "any tangible thing" the FBI requests, merely by claiming that it is "sought for" a terrorism investigation or that it is for "clandestine intelligence activities;"
* Free Speech (the First Amendment) - First, Section 218 permits surveillance of any "U.S. person" for any criminal investigation, as long as information gathered is for "a significant purpose." Second, Sections 215 & 505 issues gag orders on those visited by the FBI. Third, Section 412 allows detention and deportation of any immigrant who even verbally supports a terrorist organization. Fourth, Section 802 defines "domestic terrorism" as "acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of criminal laws...[that] appear to be intended...to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion."
II. Circumventing the Principles of Democracy
The Bush administration has circumvented democracy in at least four particularly horrific ways. First of all, its secrecy. Judge Damon Keith stated from the bench, in a ruling against the use of the PATRIOT Act by the administration that "democracy dies behind closed doors." By most accounts, this administration has maintained the highest degree of secrecy of any administration in recent history. This includes the following actions taken by Mr. Bush and/or his administration:
* withholding the names and treatment of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay;
* barring the press and public from immigration hearings;
* most prominently, the extreme secrecy surrounding the events leading up to 9/11, including the long stonewalling the administration did to prevent an investigation into intelligence and other failures leading to 9/11. Even though Mr. Bush eventually acquiesced to such a panel under political pressure, he continued to stonewall on providing them timely and important information;
* excluding members of Congress from gaining information they have legally asked for in order to perform their constitutional duties. The Bush Whitehouse has told Congress flat out that no more questions from them concerning its spending of taxpayer money will be accepted or answered;
* the new legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security forbids disclosure of any information concerning public health, safety, and the environment that private industry labels "sensitive." Thus, businesses are now allowed to conceal even the most minor of safety violations which concern the public health;
* Vice President Dick Cheney has successfully blocked public knowledge of his meeting with energy company lobbyists who were involved with his energy task force;
* The Vice President refuses to answer questions concerning the his four heart attacks, and his current health status. He has consistently told reporters that he would give them information on his health, but he never does. It is fully within bounds that citizens be informed about the failing health of the second-highest leader in our land;
* Mr. Cheney's secrecy concerning the fact that while he was in charge of Halliburton, the company did oil business with Iraq, Iran, Libya, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan. These are all countries that are well known for massive human rights violations. Not only that, but Congress had passed legislation forbidding economic aid to Azerbaijan due to such rights violations. But Mr. Bush signed a presidential order overriding the law, and Mr. Cheney's company was right back in business there;
* Bush tightly controlled the media by bringing friendly and out of town journalists in to cover his official doings instead of relying on the usual White House press corps;
* The administration's involvement in the Project for a New American Century. It's first publication came in 1992, and outlined plans for U.S. hegemony in the world by attacking Iraq, Iran, Syria, and North Korea, and all they needed was something "like a new Pearl Harbor;"
* Mr. Cheney's creation of a secret government, making decisions out of the spotlight and with no accountability to Congress or to the public;
* The White House covering up the Red Cross report concerning prisoner abuse in Abu Graib, which was delivered to Mr. Bush a full two months before the pictures that came out that shook the world. Not only have they kept that report secret, but they have also stifled the report from Army Major General Antonio Taguba, which was presented to the Pentagon in March of this year;
The second alarming way in which the Bush team has inhibited democracy from functioning as it should is in its secret executive orders - Any of the following executive orders can be researched on www.whitehouse.gov, or by perusing journalistic articles on them:
* Postponed public release of thousands of declassified presidential documents that are 25 years old or more;
* stopped the Reagan presidential papers from being released to the public, even though President Reagan had signed off on doing so, as required by law;
* sent hundreds of millions of dollars to religious organizations with no obligation to show us where the money is going or how it's being used;
* signed an executive order shifting the approval needed for use of the Carnivore computer system, used to collect and store massive amounts of information on citizens from their Internet Service Provider use, from the Assistant Attorney General's office to the field offices, which means easier use and less judicial oversight;
* A Canadian citizen was secretly deported to Syria last year by the U.S. government, where he was beaten and tortured for ten months before his release. This was done on a secret presidential "finding" authorizing the CIA to deport foreigners without due process;
* order takes the entire court system out of the process of arrest and detention of alien terrorist suspects;
* Removal of information from government websites concerning "the use of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS, the fact that abortions do not increase the risk of breast cancer, Labor Department statistics on mass layoffs, and budget information showing state-by-state cuts in federal programs."
* Placing judges on the bench by fiat when it becomes clear that they will not obtain congressional approval;
* Three executive orders expanding whom in his administration can classify records to make information unavailable to reporters or the public (e.g. secretary of agriculture, secretary of health and human services, and the head of the EPA).
The third, and perhaps the most chilling, undermining of democracy Mr. Bush has engaged in concerns his involvement in religion. Siding with the extremists of the so-called "religious right" (who are neither religious nor right but rather represent the viewpoints of the equivalent of an American Taliban), Mr. Bush has systematically excluded all other faith perspectives from having an influence on his policies, and has engaged policies calculated to solidify the far-right base of the Republican Party, which has far more power than its numbers should allow. For example:
* he rejected the plea of not only the pope, but of many mainstream religious voices in the U.S. and in the world, not to rush to war in Iraq. For example, the American Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Episcopal Bishop of Washington John Chane, and Shelby Spong, all made appeals that were flatly rejected by Bush;
* his rejection/limitation of stem-cell research, opposition to abortion, and his public opposition to gay marriage are issues focused on by the "religious right;"
* continuing with this theme, Mr. Bush is quietly involvement with the hard-right group "Focus on the Family," and joined them in crafting a political move against gay marriages well before mayors and states began to discuss and/or act on the question.
* Bush and members of his administration meet with evangelical Christians (organized into the "Apostolic Congress" and calling themselves "the Christian Voice in the Nation's Capital," and openly advocating a "one-state solution" in Israel [i.e. no Palestinian state]), before formulating or announcing mid-East policies;
* Mr. Bush has allowed religious groups to obtain federal grants to build centers for religious worship, something never before done in the history of this country, which traditionally has respected the First Amendment more than apparently Mr. Bush does;
* his nearly single-issue litmus test for nomination of new federal judges of being anti-abortion;
* his "faith-based initiatives" which clearly violate the First Amendment and also steer needed funds away from those in need;
The fourth way the Bush administration has undermined democracy is by overturning environmental legislation by fiat, and by replacing scientists and scientific research with committee members and findings that are ideologically determined, not scientifically and objectively researched. Examples of this include the following:
* the Union of Concerned Scientists, with support from many other organized and unorganized scientists, have charged the Bush administration with suppressing research and manipulating science in favor of ideology "on global warming, air quality, sexual health, cancer and other issues." When the White House denied the charges, a group of scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, responded to the White House denial with a point by point rebuttal;
* Bush has also become known for dumping respected scientists from governmental panels and replacing them with political appointees whose opinions are more in line with his and corporate America's business ideology.
* Robert F. Kennedy has accused the Bush administration of drastically changing over 200 environmental laws to favor corporate and polluter interests;
* the EPA now does the bidding of corporate America, and where they do not, Bush simply orders them to do this. For example, the agency mysteriously killed the EPA's planned emergency announcement that 16 billion tons of termolite, a substance that contains lethal levels of asbestos, had been mixed with fertilizers and home insulation. For another example, telling the EPA that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant that the agency is permitted to regulate;
* his "Clean Skies Initiative" will allow 17,700 older coal-burning plants to continue to pollute by avoiding having to purchase expensive "scrubbers" to clean their emissions;
* the refusal of the Bush administration to sign or to abide by the Kyoto agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which cause global warming, even though the U.S. is the greatest producer of these emissions, will make it extremely difficult for the world to avoid environmental catastrophe in the near future;
* Bush has also covered up and suppressed his own scientists' research into the seriousness of global warming. For example, it is already known that global warming kills over 150,000 people a year worldwide. In addition, a German government study states that measures four times greater than the Kyoto agreement that Mr. Bush refused to sign will now be needed to stem the tide of global warming and stop the polar ice caps from melting. In fact, the chief scientist in England has warned that global warming is a bigger threat than terrorism, and the environmental policies of the U.S. President are also worse than terrorism.
* the Bush administration has announced plans to scuttle the "Roadless Area Conservation Rule" passed in January, 2001. This law limits logging and development where no roads were already built. When Bush cuts this law down, his friends in the logging industry will be cutting down our national forests as well;
* Bush's EPA has also dropped investigations into over 100 power plants and factories for violating the Clean Air Act, and also dropped 13 cases in which it was determined that pollution laws had in fact been violated. In response, Democratic senators, attorneys general, and lawyers from seven Northeastern states are not only pressing for an investigation, but have sued the Bush administration for failing to regulate power plant emissions of carbon dioxide;
* Bush has proposed a new directive, which would exempt numerous governmental agencies from following environmental law, under the guise of "national security." The plan includes allowing the "degradation of public resources-such as building new roads through national forests for use by the border patrol - with no input from the public whatsoever;"
* In July of this year, Bush proposed to scrap a rule "that put nearly 60 million acres of national forest largely off limits to logging, mining or other development in favor of a new system that would leave it to governors to seek greater - or fewer - strictures on road construction in forests;"
* Bush has made an effort to amend the 1973 Endangered Species Act so U.S. companies can import endangered animals if they pay the country they are taking it from, for conservation efforts. Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall calls this effort "terrifying," and blames lobbyists from businesses that use animals for entertainment in the U.S. for these attempts to undo important legislation;
* Mr. Bush said of his energy plan, unveiled in May, 2001, that it would "make this country the world's leader in energy efficiency and conservation in the 21st century." However, the bill he presented "devotes less than ten percent of the $25.7 billion in tax breaks to energy efficiency;"
* The Bush administration is also in the process of weakening laws regarding the levels of mercury in the air;
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