Impeachment: power of We, the People...

Read any good Constitutions lately?



Imagine trying to get present-day Democrats and Republicans, in 2008, to 'sign off' on this following sentence:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Do you honestly think it could happen? Our Patrician Senators and Partisan Representatives are more beholden to their Fascist Lobbyists and industrial Campaign Donors, then 'quaint' notions of Liberty, Justice and Tranquility...

SIDEBAR: that 'quaint' is directly quoting Alberto Gonzales, former 'Torturer General' for the Bush misAdministration... although it's often been misquoted:

Gonzales had described the Geneva Conventions as being “obsolete”, regarding the 'strict limitations on questioning of enemy soldiers', and had called “quaint” its 'provisions requiring that captured enemy be afforded such things as commissary privileges, scrip...' etc.

Nevertheless, outrage is justifiable when the true quote is read: torture IS obsolete, unless an Administration (aka “misAdministration” here at ZENmud Productions) seeks to pervert our Democracy, the innate role portrayed by the better nature found in the hearts of most, or some American citizens...

When the word 'impeachment' flies today, often in reaction to the known war crimes perpetrated from the highest levels of this misAdministration, it always amazes me how partisan the term has become.

Those of us who lived through the Nixon regime, and more recently the Clinton regime, may or may not have attached party-loyalty to the governmental actions of those days... but look above!

“We the People”

That is as pluralistic as one can achieve – we the PEOPLE:

• as holders of the powers of government, through our votes;

• as parents of children for whom we yearn to pass on the freedoms our fathers and mothers fought for;

• as citizens of the world, who should care more about other living cultures;

• as custodians of our Planet, for which no money-back guarantee has ever been offered.

Regard if you would, Articles I and II of our Constitution:

Article I, Section.2.

[.....]
“The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
(original wording for your timeless pleasure)

Section.3.

[.....]
The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

And completing this survey, the Article II section on the Presidency:

Section. 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

On Impeachment, then, it is important that a legal philosophy be suggested; that in the House of Representatives, elected by 'We the People', that the House must rise above partisanship, if a Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors have been committed while any civil Officer, Vice President or President hold an elected Office.

This occurred during the second Nixon presidential term: the 38-member House Judiciary Committee brought a resolution to the vote (a truly great historian's article in Time Magazine) based on their four quarrelsome days of debate:

Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

Six sitting Republican House Members, voted with the totality of Democrats (21), by a vote of 27 to 11, to have this committee decision reported to the floor of the House. That committee vote sealed Nixon's fate: either he was to submit himself into the hands of the House, or act himself, in choosing resignation.

While the anxiety on the nation and the world, through Nixon's horrible acts of conscience, was great, the bipartisan nature of those deliberations, in the face of crimes against the Constitution, allowed the procedures put in place by our Founding Fathers to roll slowly towards Justice, and resolution of the problem.

In retrospect, the one-sided nature of the Clinton impeachment process, and trial in the Senate, had all the earmarks of petty partisan retaliation for the Nixon impeachment. In fact, the treatment of Clinton, both by his opponents and the Mainstream Media (MSM) that was becoming the Republican Party's falsifying Fascist full-strength force for uncivil governmental discourse, had minimal support from citizens who held any allegiance to both parties.

Whether this situation could be resolved, in essence through the creation of a new Constitutional Amendment, is still unclear... How do you force 'bipartisanship', which should be striven for in nearly all Federal legislative decisions? Can it be forced, could it backfire? Perhaps!

Yet a sample wording for such an Amendment could be:

"Where any decision is taken by a properly designated Committee, toward any civil Officer, Vice President or President, that such Officer shall be placed under investigation for Impeachment, that no Committee action shall be taken which does not receive support from at least fifteen percent of the Committee's sitting Members of the House of Representatives from that Officer's own Party."

One could even say that, since the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, that certain radical right-wing elements had acquired a finer perception of the powers of 'Character Assassination', which was certainly more profitable to the Press, than the resulting chaos and potential for conviction through 'Bullet-Assassination'

Thomas Jefferson, he of a thousand quotations, once said:

"Liberty is to the collective body what health is to every individual body. Without health, no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society."

How is Liberty promoted, when a Citizenry fears the future, when a Press guides and promotes that fear, and when a Country's politicians run on election platforms that stoke the fires that feed into that Fear?

In doing the work of the People who elected the Officers in our Legislative branch, those Officers: Senators and Representatives, must remember to separate the work on their desks, from the financing of the campaigns which found them in their Offices.

In the House, the questions should be raised, as to whether war crimes constitute “high Crimes and Misdemeanors”, and bipartisan support through a House Judicial committee investigation and vote should send a Bill of Impeachment to the Senate.

This is the essence and existence of Liberty in our country.

And if in reading this, one were to ask oneself how ZENmud Central could ever anticipate any Republican support for Articles of Impeachment, given their rancune against Democrats, and their liaison with the Fascist Mainstream Media, the only possible answer is to remember how something became broken.

IT was NOT 'Democrats' that pushed Nixon out of Office: it was Nixon.

IT was NOT 'Democrats' that tried to push Clinton out of Office: it was Republicans, in retaliation, or in 'Character Assassination', who tried their hardest to thwart the will of voters who voted under their responsibilities: as “We, the People”

IT is NOT 'Democrats' who are ashamed of Bush, "Bush the Lesser" as President: it is...

We ARE the People, and the duty we hold now is towards that of our children's future, in a world that responds to the actions taken by civil Office holders that have forgotten their priorities: they are voting for their campaign financial benefactors, not for those, in whose name, they attained and hold Office.

A second presidential term, that ends without consideration of the devastation and division wrought by the current misAdministration, and without producing bipartisan support for a resolution for Impeachment, brought by the true 'owners' of the American Government, will have vast implications for the future of Democracy, in the North American continent.

Bush cannot be, has not been, will never be judged in the objective light of policy decisions gone awry: he will always be known as the worst politician of the Twenty-First Century...

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç

How to divorce a President...

Citizens in the USA agonized, some ten years or so ago, whether Hillary would 'dump' Bill Clinton for his peccadillo with sweet young (and chubby) Monica Lewinski.

Citizens of France don't have to suffer through two or more years of similar, nauseating media decadence, as they are now in the know about last week's divorce: anticipated, rumoured and officially ignored. News reports ended the months of speculation and the hot rumours of the last two weeks, and that silence from Martignon, the seat of the French Government.

But this refreshing silence left questions unanswered in its wake, a phenomenon quasi-unacceptable to anyone in the States. Imagine what could have happened in the USA, if Bill Clinton's private life, private affairs, and private marital status had been treated as that.

We know that Cécélia had a lover, but we don't know what they share today; we know nothing about Nicholas' lover(s), if he were to have them or if he is truly, as is his image, 'married' to his job.

We are also aware that the Sarkozy-media alliance is as strong if not stronger than that which ties the US mainstream media (MSM) to the Bush family. The reconciliation of Monsieur and Madame Sarkozy certainly lasted long enough for him to campaign and win the presidency over another perfectly French couple, that of former Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal, and her long-time companion François Holland.

But past events in France, including the long-awaited liberation of the Bulgarian nurses (and one doctor) held in Libya for nearly five years or more, were achieved by the French Presidential Couple. Indeed, it was Cécilia, whose private interview with Libyan leader Khadafi had apparently broken the impasse and allowed their remittance into Bulgarian custody (Where they were prompty granted pardons).

Two recent media events were rather amusing to the French audiences that witnessed them, and at ZEN Central the overwhelming decision was to pass their substance to you.

More directly, President Sarkozy was interviewed, while on a visit to Portugal for the summit reunion for the purpose of approving the new European Union Treaty. Questions about his divorce diverted attention from this event, that reversed the great failure under former French president Jacques Chirac, whose support of the attempted EU Constitution, demonstrated his impotence by failing to bring the French population to support it, as also occurred in the Netherlands, in the summer of 2006.

Sarkozy's scathing response to a question or series of questions by a reporter from Le Monde, was icy-cold and denigrating, responding ad hoc that he'd presumed that questions would concern the treaty, that a paper as prestigious as Le Monde was demonstrating a curious lack of professionalism, that his position, voted into the Presidency of France, meant that he should work, and work more, and do more for the people of France, who he considered had mandated that alone, and were very little concerned with his private life. “Once bitten twice shy,” and no other reporter asked him about that during the televised conference.

The second event was truly French. On the encoded channel 'Canal Plus' (Similar to a US 'HBO' or 'Showtime', although available outside of cable networks from the purchase of a decoder), the evening news ends with a series known as 'Les Guignols' (the Puppets), which has the satiric farcical nature found in a combination of the US shows 'Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update' or the Daily Show with John Stewart. Their selection of skits skewers everyone without exception.

So Friday evening, ZEN Central tuned in specifically to see whatever coverage they may have of the divorce, and there were two elements of note.

A marionnette representing Cécilia Sarkozy was asked by the News-Anchor puppet, to please at last provide more details to the burning questions regarding how her visit to Khaddafi had turned the momentum towards that famous release of prisoners.

“Her” reply was priceless, describing in soft yet breathless detail how her trip proceeded. Minute attention offered insights that all the world awaited. How she wore a light cream Givenchy traveling ensemble in the plane, and her Louis Vuitton luggage was properly identified and moved into the official car, which brought her to her five-star hotel suite, where she could bath in a Christian Dior relaxation bubble bath. Afterwards, her Christian Lacroix pant-suit was perfect for the hot desert climate, and she... you get the picture? ;-)

Another skit revealed how a waiter was treated by the press for his refusal to answer questions about the meal served to Nicholas S., and the tone of the questions mimicked how France was uninformed about the Presidential divorce – only in France, could the comic information exceed the official information.

This all brings to light, that the Sarkozy presidency is, as much as the Bush presidency will be looked on historically, a smoke-and-mirrors relationship with the press, who've helped Monsieur le President at each step of the 'glorious' path he climbed, over the wreckage of rival UDP candidates such as former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, now under investigation for his involvement in the Clearstream scandal, as well as the media-beaten candidate Ségolène Royal, who had captured ZENattention in the late spring of 2007.

“Céciliaaaaaaaah, tu m'as brisé le coeur – t'as secoué ma confiance quotadiennement...”

(apologies to Paul Simon...)

The actual divorce was apparently filed and decided within a 24 to 48 hour period, apparently with super-secret advance notice, zero leaks to the press and a predetermined decree. This countered speculation in certain quarters that if Nicholas didn't want the divorce, a newly-enacted French law (designed to protect outgoing President Chirac for various 'investigations' now underway) offered immunity from any civil suit, which could have included a unilateral action for divorce by Cécilia.

As it stands, apparently the couple agreed enough on their status to make the suffering and impact on the Presidency their higher concern, and a swift change of status makes the only story that of the NON-story of the Sarkozy marital discords.

Congratulations to France, for its ability to ignore sexual sideshow political smears, such as were sustained on a multi-year basis by the American Republican party, a shameful action for impeachment that created the stained, strained relationships that dominate Washington, DC, to this day.

Vive la FRANCE...

Courage, les divorcé(e)s

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç