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Bush Republicans' Contempt for ( and of ) Congress Contempt: The feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless; scorn. The state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace. Open disrespect or willful disobedience of the authority of a court of law or legislative body. Contempt of Congress: The deliberate obstruction of the workings of the federal legislative branch: For example, a witness under subpoena who refuses to testify before Congress can be cited for contempt of Congress. I first noticed that there was something terribly wrong with the Bush administration in the early days of the presidency. I was left wondering, how anyone could "solemnly swear to faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and to the best of their ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States" while at the same time appointing convicted felons and those who have already proven their disregard and contempt for the legislative body that is the Congress of the United States. Most of the felons were the flunkies of the Iran-contra scandal. For those of you who don't know, the long and short of the Iran Contra scandal was that Congress forbade the White house to continue it's upheaval of the democratically elected governments in Central America, so they continued doing it covertly. Selling Central American cocaine in the United States, selling weapons to Iran, and using the profits to fund the contras in Central America. That big boom of crack cocaine of the 80's? That was them. I guess when you buy drugs, you really do support the terrorists. (1) Probably most disturbing appointment was that of Admiral John Poindexter to head the Total Information Awareness Office. Poindexter, as you may recall, is a five time convicted felon. Five felonies. Poindexter was found guilty April 7, 1990, on all counts: conspiracy (obstruction of inquiries and proceedings, false statements, falsification, destruction and removal of documents); two counts of obstruction of Congress and two counts of false statements. The Total Information Awareness Office was the Orwellian nightmare devised to compile a dossier on every single American citizen that would include everything from one's health records and school transcripts right down to your email accounts and internet shopping habits. Of course, the TIA office has been abandoned as a federal project. It's now in the hands of the individual states (spearheaded by Texas and Florida) under the ominous name...and I'm not making this up...the MATRIX. And one handy bonus for this program leaving the hands of the feds and going to the states? No congressional oversight and no whistle-blower protections for anyone reporting the inevitable instances of abuse. (2) (3) Another former Iran-Contra defendant and Bush appointee is PNAC member Elliott Abrams. He now serves as Chief of Middle Eastern affairs at National Security Agency. An assistant secretary of state under Reagan, Abrams entered into a plea agreement on October 7, 1991, and pleaded guilty to two counts of withholding information from Congress. He pleaded guilty to unlawfully withholding material information concerning Oliver North's contact with and encouragement of the people supplying the contras from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 10, 1986. Additionally, he pleaded guilty to unlawfully withholding material information from HPSCI on October 14, 1986, concerning his participation in the Brunei solicitation and his expectation, as of October 14, that the $10 million from the Sultan of Brunei was on its way to the Swiss bank account he had provided. Still there are more Iran-Contra appointees-
There is another frightening Iran Contra insider involved in the Bush administration right now. He's heading the 9-11 investigation after Kissinger resigned the post. and that man's name is Lee Hamilton. Former Congressman Lee Hamilton, chairman of the House select committee investigating the Iran-contra affair, was shown ample evidence against Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush during the Iran-contra affair, but he did not probe their wrongdoing. Why did Hamilton choose not to investigate? In a late 1980s interview aired on PBS 'Frontline,' Hamilton said that he did not think it would have been 'good for the country'. I have to wonder now, would discovering that The Bush administration had allowed 9-11 to occur for the agenda of the PNAC be considered "not good for the country" In Mr. Hamilton's view? (4) (5) Fnally, let's not forget an energy policy written in secret, with no democrats present, and the notes of which are being hidden from Congress and the American people by our own energy company CEO and Vice President, Dick Cheney. If these meetings and notes are secret form the American people and congress, how then is it even possible to have a representative and accountable government? If our executive branch has such contempt for congress, how then do we have a system of checks and balances and how then is the president "faithfully executing the Office of the President of the United States, and to the best of his ability, preserving, protecting, and defending the constitution of the United States". (6) (7)
(1) http://www.oldamericancentury.org/bushcontra.htm (2) http://www.oldamericancentury.org/poindy.htm (3) http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=14240&c=130 (4) http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/hamiltoniran-contra.htm (5) http://www.bartcop.com/parry-hamilton.htm (6) http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/09.30C.cheney.argue.p.htm (7) http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/cheney_gao010625.html |
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