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The time has come to, as John Edwards said in his speech before the DNC Friday February 2nd “to Stand up for America.”

To me the way to Stand Up is to push our elected representatives to end the war in Iraq, and to impeach both Bush and Cheney. To Stand Up and return America to its greatness in the eyes of the World.

“My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.” Abraham Lincoln

This nightmare of a war in Iraq, is not the fault of George W. Bush and his neo-cons any more than it is the fault of an American electorate, a U.S. Supreme Court, and millions and millions of good, upstanding, God-fearing, git-tuff-on-them-heathen Americans who let that mendacious, incompetent, destructive man sit in the Oval Office for these past six miserable years.

The Bush and company conspiracy of lies is what got this country into a war in Iraq that has already cost us hundreds of billions and that ultimately may end up costing over $3 trillion, and has cost the lives of nearly 3,100 Americans and over 120,000 Iraqis. It brings into question our legitimacy in the eyes of the global community.

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln

If you want our soldiers out of Iraq there is now a bill in Congress that would accomplish this. HR 413 would de-authorize the occupation. DownsizeDC org is mounting a campaign to pass this legislation. You can use their Congressional Contact System to ask your representatives to co-sponsor HR 413. http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=63

The corporate media in their self-designated “wisdom” have decided that impeachment of President Bush or Vice President Cheney is a left-wing fantasy. As a result, there is virtually no coverage in the media of either the majority sentiment for removing Bush from office or even of the key issues that make this president the perfect example for the impeachment provisions of our Constitution.

I may be a liberal, but I don’t consider my self “Left Wing” nor is the majority of people in this country. And it is the majority who are calling for impeachment of the Red-Mafia of George W. Bush not some imagined fantasy as seems to be the hope of the Right. But while it makes me mad that they assume that anyone who speaks out against this crooked administration is ultra left wing, what makes me even madder is that there are so many in the leadership of the Democratic Party doing the very same thing. They are strong arming advocates of impeachment behind the scenes, trying to bring the so-called “rebels” into line with the wishes of the DLC.
Amy Tan said, "In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you."

And I for one have no intention of keeping the circumstances of an administration that has failed We the People.

Why people ask (at least members of the Ultra Right Wing do) impeach the President and Vice President?

Because while Bush has maintained that his use of assumed authority is within his powers as President, and Republicans are now saying that even if he did go too far, he had not acted with bad intent, since he believed that he possessed sufficient authority for his actions. At least they are no longer blindly playing follow the leader. And his use of the assumed authority to obstruct federal investigations into what the administration knew about the 9-11 attacks before they happened, his misleading Congress over the Iraq war, supporting torture, engaging in illegal spying on U.S. citizens and using his office to punish critics.

Because of their undermining of basic Constitutional freedoms, from First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, assembly, press and religion to Fourth Amendment guarantees against unreasonable search and seizure and Sixth Amendment rights to a fair trial, to the even more basic rights of citizenship.

Because of abuses of power, including the blatant violation of the law in the case of the president's violation of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act, the use of over 500 "signing statements" to simply ignore laws passed by Congress, and the ignoring of court orders, as well as the use of government power to attack individuals, as in the case of the outing of under-cover CIA agent Valerie Plame in order to punish her whistle-blowing husband, ambassador Joe Wilson.

Because of their criminally negligent attitude towards governing that has brought us the disaster and needless death of hundreds of people in New Orleans, the fiasco of the Medicare drug "program" for seniors, and the chaos of post-war Iraq.

Because of the culture of corruption in Washington that makes earlier epic scandals like Teapot Dome look penny-ante, with over 60 Republican members of Congress (that's better than one in four!) linked to just one bribing lobbyist and with war profiteering by Republican-linked corporations running rampant.

Because of the trampling of international law through the authorization of policies of torture of captives and the rounding up and deporting of law-abiding residents based solely upon their ethnicity and religion, all of which have made America a pariah in the international community and needlessly inflamed hatred of America across the Muslim world.

Because of the criminal know-nothing obstructionism with regard to the urgent crisis of global warming, which even the Pentagon has concluded threatens the national security of the United States far more than any rag-tag band of terrorists.

Americans hold that our Constitution is a sacred document, and anyone from the President down who fails to honor the law of the land as outlined in this Constitution is guilty of treason. And should be impeached.

Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, who has written forcefully on the criminal case against the President. For example, in United States v. George W. Bush et al., she actually lays out a rather chillingly realistic scenario involving a grand jury hearing evidence against Mr. Bush. Such a case before a grand jury would parallel the indictment contained in the body of articles of impeachment in the United States House of Representatives. She and other legal talent have extended that service in other venues and writings by offering the manifest outline of the case for the prosecution of the charges contained in those articles, as well as the means by which the trial in the U.S. Senate would be successful. Ms. de la Vega, by the way, is an outstanding legal mind, even more so because she not only has extensive experience in the ways of defendants, but also has the ability to clearly set forth the complexities of the prosecution of a high official in such a way that a reasonably well-educated citizen would be able to see whether or not the actual trial was proceeding in the manner most likely to be successful.

While impeachment is a given, the ending of the illegal war in Iraq must be of utmost importance. Anything that will get our loved ones home with out more disgraceful tragic deaths, is a valid endeavour.

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” John F. Kennedy

Don’t forget the petition to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Titled: "FREE WORLD From VP Cheney's Tyranny" hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition service, at: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/WD13007/

Abraham Lincoln said, "To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men."

Don’t be a coward, Stand Up for America!

Ron McBride
WeDemocrats.org
Founder & Chairman
Publisher of WE! The People online magazine
ron@wedemocrats.org

Ron McBride is founder, chairman and regular contributor of, by and for www.wedemocrats.org. He is the author of numerous articles on Democracy. His writings can be found at www.WeDemocrats.org, at mytown.ca/mcbride plus blogs such as www.dailykos.com, at OpEdNews and www.mydd.com