I propose creating a sign-on letter for state legislators calling for Congress and the media to recognize the widespread and ongoing criminality of the Bush administration and to do their fucking duty and hold the criminals accountable.
Below the fold is the beginning of a draft sign-on letter.
This project is connected to initiating impeachment in state legislatures, a project diligently researched and advocated by Kagro X. A sign-on letter doesn't navigate the formal wickets envisioned by Jefferson's Manual of the House of Representatives, but it carries the implied threat that the signers can do it if forced.
As an organizing tool the letter will connect local activists to their legislators at the state level. This has a number of implications for local media outlets, legislators and state parties. How many people need to get pissed-off at their Republican state legislators to tip a district?
Here's the draft letter I wrote this morning:
Open letter to Congress & national media
We call on you to face reality and do you duty. You have avoided the reality that the Bush administration has engaged in a pattern of criminality to consolidate power. You—the media—have failed to investigate, connect the dots and explain the criminality of the Bush administration. You—the Congress—have failed to protect the prerogatives of the legislative branch, hold the Bush administration accountable and forcefully speak against Bush administration criminality perpetrated in the open.
This letter was written in response to President George W. Bush commuting the prison sentence of a man convicted of obstructing justice, Isaac "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff of Vice President Richard "Dick" Cheney. However, the total list of grievances goes back much further.
What made Bush commuting Libby's sentence so odious was that Libby's crime was committed to cover-up crimes by senior members of the Bush administration (and there are a limited number of Bush administration officials for whom Libby sacrificing himself would make sense). Further the crimes Libby was covering for were crimes against people who were telling the truth about Iraq while the Bush administration was peddling fallacies and lies so that it could start an unnecessary, ill-conceived war.
Bush pardoned one of his co-conspirators on Monday, July 2, 2007. Going to war in Iraq was a crime against international law, the Iraqi people, the U.S. military and American taxpayers. It's time for Congress and the American media to hold President Bush and his administration accountable. Libby's crimes were committed to prevent Bush and Cheney from being held accountable for the underlying crime of invading Iraq.
I'd like to continue the letter by discussing how Bush was elected in 2000 based on Republican public officials systematically denying Floridians (particularly African-Americans, but not exclusively) their voting rights. See Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election.
The Bush administration continued to perpetrate crimes against the American people, mostly in the name of national security. The POTUS deliberately sought to promote fear of foreign terrorists as an excuse to deny citizens their rights and to make his political allies rich.
Along the way these abuses were furthered by various crimes including simple graft by Republican members of Congress. By enriching key Republicans the Bush administration found it could disable Congress as a check against abuses of power by the executive branch.
The media ignored and downplayed the criminality of the Bush administration and the Republican Party in Washington.