posted on July 13, 2002 02:32:33 AM new
The following is a speech that Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Congressman from Cleveland, Ohio, gave in February, 2002 at the University of Southern California. Rep. Kucinich is the leader of the Progressive Caucus and a longtime defender of free speech, civil liberties and international peace. It makes him the first member of the United States Congress to openly repudiate President Bush's war rationale.
I offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak freely. With the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear and faith at the same time. With the understanding that there is a deeper truth expressed in the unity of the United States. That implicit in the union of our country is the union of all people. That all people are essentially one. That the world is interconnected not only on the material level of economics, trade, communication, and
transportation, but interconnected through human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to breathe free. I offer this prayer for America.
Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. We must ask, why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?
How can we justify in effect canceling the First Amendment and the right of free speech, the right to peaceably assemble?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable cause,the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Fifth Amendment, nullifying due process, and allowing for indefinite incarceration without a trial?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right to prompt and public trial?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Eighth Amendment which protects against cruel and unusual punishment?
We cannot justify widespread wiretaps and internet surveillance without judicial supervision, let alone with it. We cannot justify secret searches without a warrant. We cannot justify giving the Attorney General the ability to designate domestic terror groups. We cannot justify giving the FBI total access to any type of data which may exist in any system anywhere such as medical records and financial records.
We cannot justify giving the CIA the ability to target people in this country for intelligence surveillance. We cannot justify a government which takes from the people our right to privacy and then assumes for its own operations a right to total secrecy. The Attorney General recently covered up a statue
of Lady Justice showing her bosom as if to underscore there is no danger of justice exposing herself at this time, before this administration.
Let us pray that our nation's leaders will not be overcome with fear. Because today there is great fear in our great Capitol. And this must be understood before we can ask about the shortcomings of Congress in the current environment. The great fear began when we had to evacuate the Capitol on September 11. It continued when we had to leave the Capitol again when a bomb scare occurred as members were pressing the CIA during a secret briefing. It continued when we abandoned Washington when anthrax, possibly from a government lab, arrived in the mail. It continued when the Attorney General declared a nationwide terror alert and then the Administration brought the destructive Patriot Bill to the floor of the House. It continued in the release of the Bin Laden tapes at the same time the President was announcing the withdrawal from the ABM treaty. It remains present in the cordoning off of the Capitol. It is present in the camouflaged armed national guardsmen who greet members of Congress each day we enter the Capitol campus. It is present in the labyrinth of concrete barriers through which we must pass each time we go to vote. The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear, ill equipped to deal with the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President.
Let us pray that our country will stop this war. "To promote the common defense" is one of the formational principles of America. Our Congress gave the President the ability to respond to the tragedy of September the Eleventh. We licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September the Eleventh. But we the people and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response. Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq. We did not authorize the invasion of Iran. We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea. We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan. We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay. We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention. We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus. We did not authorize assassination squads. We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO. We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights. We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution. We did not authorize national identity cards. We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities. We did not authorize an eye for an eye. Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan. We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases. We did not authorize war without end. We did not authorize a permanent war economy.
Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The President has requested a $45.6 billion increase in military spending. All defense-related programs will cost close to $400 billion.
Consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an independent audit.
Consider that the Inspector General has notified Congress that the Pentagon cannot properly account for $1.2 trillion in transactions.
Consider that in recent years the Dept. of Defense could not match $22 billion worth of expenditures to the items it purchased,wrote off,as lost, billions of dollars worth of in-transit inventory and stored nearly $30 billion worth of spare parts it did not need.
Yet the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror. This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation, risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which follows the militarization of the budget.
Let us pray for our children. Our children deserve a world without end. Not a war without end. Our children deserve a world free of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free of the terror of hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are committed to a world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free people, not appropriate for the survival of democratic values, not appropriate for the survival of our nation, and not appropriate for the survival of the world.
Let us pray that we have the courage and the will as a people and as a nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim from the ruins of September the Eleventh our democratic traditions. Let us declare our love for democracy. Let us declare our intent for peace. Let us work to make nonviolence an
organizing principle in our own society. Let us recommit ourselves to the slow and painstaking work of statecraft, which sees peace, not war as being inevitable. Let us work for a world where someday war becomes archaic. That is the vision which the proposal to create a Department of Peace envisions.
Forty-three members of congress are now cosponsoring the legislation. Let us work for a world where nuclear disarmament is an imperative. That is why we must begin by insisting on the commitments of the ABM treaty. That is why we must be steadfast for nonproliferation.
Let us work for a world where America can lead the way in banning weapons of mass destruction not only from our land and sea and sky but from outer space itself. That is the vision of HR 3616: A universe free of fear. Where we can look up at God's creation in the stars and imagine infinite wisdom, infinite peace, infinite possibilities, not infinite war, because we are taught that the kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.
Let us pray that we have the courage to replace the images of death which haunt us, the layers of images of September the Eleventh, faded into images of patriotism, spliced into images of military mobilization, jump cut into images of our secular celebrations of the World Series, New Year's Eve, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the strobic flashes which touch our deepest fears, let us replace those images with the work of human relations, reaching out to people, helping our own citizens here at home, lifting the plight of the poor everywhere. That is the America which has the ability to rally the support of the world. That is the America which stands not in pursuit of an axis of evil, but which is itself at the axis of hope and faith and peace and freedom.
America, America. God shed grace on thee. Crown thy good, America. Not with weapons of mass destruction. Not with invocations of an axis of evil. Not through breaking international treaties. Not through establishing America as king of a unipolar world. Crown thy good America. America, America. Let us pray for our country. Let us love our country. Let us defend our country not only from the threats without but from the threats within. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good with brotherhood, and sisterhood. And crown thy good with compassion and restraint and forbearance and a commitment to peace, to democracy, to economic justice here at home and throughout the world. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good.
posted on July 13, 2002 06:24:35 AM new
Well said. When a kid pushes another kid on the playground and is accused of an "act of terror," it's time to rethink the policy. When a kid lights up a joint and is accused of sponsoring terrorism, it's time to rethink the policy. A secret police that snoops on citizens, unaccountable to any agency, is unacceptable.
posted on July 13, 2002 06:38:21 AM new
Dennis Kuncinich was the Ohio congressman who introduced legislation on labeling genetically engineered food/crops in the U.S.
I guess people weren't interested in the food thread I started about other countries boycotting or labeling food from the U.S. and Canada. The food situation effects the little guys in agriculture, not the multi-ag businesses. I think Dennis K. sees the whole picture.
Ohio ought to be proud that they have someone who isn't afraid of speaking out. Unless he changes his attitude he won't be getting a job with large multi-nationals for millions when he leaves office. Millions down the drain for him!
On the other hand, he must sleep very well at night.
posted on July 13, 2002 06:59:32 AM new
This is the caliber of man that we should have as president of the United States. He is amoung the few who have the courage and integrity to speak the truth.
posted on July 13, 2002 11:34:52 AM new
Kucinich said things that need to be said out in the open.
These words from one of my favorite politicos seem apropos:
Opening Statement
to the House Judiciary Committee
Proceedings on Impeachment of Richard Nixon
Barbara Jordan
"Mr. Chairman, I join my colleague Mr. Rangel in thanking you for giving the junior members of this committee the glorious opportunity of sharing the pain of this inquiry. Mr. Chairman, you are a strong man, and it has not been easy but we have tried as best we can to give you as much assistance as possible.
"Earlier today we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, We, the people. It is a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed, on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that We, the people. I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision I have finally been included in We, the people.
"Today I am an inquisitor. I believe hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.
"Who can so properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of the nation themselves?" (Federalist, no. 65) The subject of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men." That is what we are talking about. In other words, the juresdiction comes from the abuse of violation of some public trust. It is wrong, I suggest, it is a misreading of the Constitution for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the president should be removed from office. The Constitution doesn't say that. The powers relating to impeachment are an essential check in the hands of this body, the legislature, against and upon the encroachment of the executive. In establishing the division between the two branches of the legislature, the House and the Senate, assigning to the one the right to accuse and to the other the right to judge, the framers of this Constitution were very astute. They did not make the accusers and the judges the same person.
"We know the nature of impeachment. We have been talking about it awhile now. "It is chiefly designed for the president and his high ministers" to somehow be called into account. It is designed to "bridle" the executive if he engages in excesses. "It is designed as a method of national inquest into the public men." (Hamilton, Federalist, no. 65.) The framers confined in the congress the power if needbe, to remove the president in order to strike a delicate balance between a president swollen with power and grown tyrannical, and preservation of the independence of the executive. The nature of impeachment is a narrowly channeled exception to the separation-of-powers maxim; the federal convention of 1787 said that. It limited impeachment to high crimes and misdemeanors and discounted and opposed the term "maladministration." "It is to be used only for great misdemeanors," so it was said in the North Carolina ratification convention. And in the Virginia ratification convention: "We do not trust our liberty to a particular branch. We need one branch to check the others."
The North Carolina ratification convention: "No one need be afraid that officers who commit oppression will pass with immunity."
"Prosecutions of impeachments will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community," said Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, no. 65. "And to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused." I do not mean political parties in that sense.
The drawing of political lines goes to the motivation behind impeachment; but impeachment must proceed within the confines of the constitutional term "high crimes and misdemeanors."
Of the impeachment process, it was Woodrow Wilson who said that "nothing short of the grossest offenses against the plain law of the land will suffice to give them speed and effectiveness. Indignation so great as to overgrow party interest may secure a conviction; but nothing else can."
Common sense would be revolted if we engaged upon this process for insurance, campaign finance reform, housing, environmental protection, energy sufficiency, mass transportation. Pettiness cannot be allowed to stand in the face of such overwhelming problems. So today we are not being petty. We are trying to be big because the task we have before us is a big one.
This morning, in a discussion of the evidence, we were told that the evidence which purports to support the allegations of misuse of the CIA by the president is thin. We are told that that evidence is insufficient. What that recital of the evidence this morning did not include is what the president did know on June 23, 1972. The president did know that it was Republican money, that it was money from the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, which was found in the possession of one of the burglars arrested on June 17.
What the president did know on June 23 was the prior activities of E. Howard Hunt, which included his participation in the break-in of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, which included Howard Hunt's participation in the Dita Beard ITT affair, which included Howard Hunt's fabrication of cables designed to discredit the Kennedy administration.
We were further cautioned today that perhaps these proceedings ought to be delayed because certainly there would be new evidence forthcoming from the president. The comittee subpoena is outstanding, and if the president wants to supply that material, the committee sits here.
The fact is that yesterday, the American people waited with great anxiety for eight hours, not knowing whether their president would obey an order of the Supreme Court of the United States.
At this point I would like to juxtapose a few of the impeachment criteria with some of the president's actions.
Impeachment criteria: James Madison, from the Virginia ratification convention. "If the president be connected in any suspicious manner with any person and there be grounds to believe that he will shelter him, he may be impeached."
We have heard time and time again that the evidence reflects payment to the defendants of money. The president had knowledge that these funds were being paid and that these were funds collected for the 1972 presidential campaign.
We know that the president met with Mr. Henry Petersen twenty-seven times to discuss matters related to Watergate and immediately thereafter met with the very persons who were implicated in the information Mr. Petersen was receiving and transmitting to the president. The words are "if the president be connected in any suspicious manner with any person and there be grounds to believe that he will shelter that person, he may be impeached."
Justice Story: "Impeachment is intended for occasional and extraordinary cases where a superior power acting for the whole people is put into operation to protect their rights and rescue their liberties from violations."
We know about the Huston plan. We know about the break-in of the psychiatrist's office. We know that there was absolute complete direction in August 1971 when the president instructed Ehrlichman to "do whatever is necessary." This instruction led to a surreptitious entry into Dr. Fielding's office.
"Protect their rights." "Rescue their liberties from violation."
The South Carolina ratification convention impeachment criteria: those are impeachable "who behave amiss or betray their public trust."
Beginning shortly after the Watergate break-in and continuing to the present time, the president has engaged in a series of public statements and actions designed to thwart the lawful investigation by government prosecutors. Moreover, the president has made public announcements and assertions bearing on the Watergate case which the evidence will show he knew to be false.
These asseritons, false assertions, impeachable, those who misbehave. Those who "behave amiss or betray their public trust."
James Madison again at the Constitutional Convention: "A president is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution."
The Constitution charges the president wiht the task of taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, and yet the president has counseled his aides to commit perjury, willfully disregarded the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, concealed surreptitious entry, attempted to compromise a federal judge while publicly displaying his cooperation with the processes of criminal justice.
"A president is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution."
If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that eighteenth century Constitution should be abandoned to a twentieth-century paper shredder. Has the president committed offenses and planned and directed and acquiesced in a course of conduct which the Constitution will not tolerate? That is the question. We know that. We know the question. We should now forthwith proceed to answer the question. It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision."
You have the right to an informed opinion -Harlan Ellison
posted on July 13, 2002 04:22:55 PM new
I'm sure that his courageous words fell on Hollow Halls and Deaf Ears. Not a mention of this ever came to the national media. If Democrats will start to lead the fight against Fascism and promise to rescind the Patriot Act and all other illegal Acts by this President and this Congress and this Supreme Court, then they may be assured of the backing of the American People. But I doubt it. I read today where in the mid-70's, the federal gasoline tax was only 2-cents. Jimmy Carter wanted a way to increase that tax in order to pay off the National Debt. He decided that if the price of gasoline could be raised from the then 50-cents to a new $1.00 per gallon cost, he could justify raising the gasoline tax to 10 or 12-cents per gallon. He had a meeting with Texaco, Exxon, and so-forth about how to do this and the answer was what we all remember as the Oil Crisis of the late 1970's. Company owned gas stations got refills of gasoline first, so mom & pop gasoline stations all went out of business in America by the thousands. One truck driver out of Albuquerque, NM told how he was ordered to illegally dump 5,000-gallon gas trunks onto the open Mesa in order to create a shortage and to drive prices upwards. It was all a sham and consumers have bourn the brunt of it ever since. So, to Hell with the Democrat politicians!
If there is an Honest and Trustworthy Servant of the People among the Democrats in Congress, who has the Courage to stand up to Tyranny and the Will to express it and the Desire to do what needs to be done, let Him or Her come forth from either shame-filled political party and stand aside with the rest of the American people. By these signs will a True Leader of the People become known.
posted on July 14, 2002 02:03:53 PM new
It's wonderful to worship from afar isn't it???
I remember the good ole Dennis from the newspapers. Grabbing the bull by the horns, Cleveland became the 1st major American city since the Depression to go into default. The citizenry revolted and filed for his recall, missing by 200 votes. He wore a bulletproof vest everywhere.
The reason he ran for Congress was because after he got bounced in '79, he couldn't get a job. He had to go to Congress.
This is the new front man to carry the flag??? Sheesh.
Maybe if you start enough petitions, you can get him to run for President. The Republicans might pay for the printing if you ask.
Dennis: I campaigned for mayor on a promise to save the municipal electric system. There had been a long effort to privatize our electric system, and for years I had led an effort to withstand that pressure. Finally, the council and the mayor prior to myself agreed to sell. I campaigned to save the system, got elected, and my first act in office was to cancel the sale.
The private electric company had very close business relations with the banks. The banks let me know that if I didn’t go along with the sale, they would not renew the city’s credit. I had reduced the city’s spending by 10 percent, but without access to credit—at a time when I was still paying off bills from the previous administration—I knew the city could go into default. So I was being blackmailed.
I knew when I refused to sell, that I would be ending my political career. I made the decision to save the electric system, a decision that turned out to be a pivotal moment in my life. The credit was cut, the city defaulted, and I lost my bid for re-election; I was out of public life, something that I had dedicated my life to. For years, I couldn’t get a job in the city where I had challenged the banks. My marriage fell apart, and I spent a lot of time walking streets in a lot of major cities trying to figure out how to put a career back together again.
Eventually, it was understood that the decision was the right thing for the people of Cleveland, because that electric system that I saved now provides savings of 25 to 30 percent.
Sarah: I understand the Cleveland City Council honored you for “having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city’s municipal electric system.” But during the time when you were essentially in exile, what did you think about what you had done?
Dennis: I grew up believing that if you did the right thing, it always works out. I hadn’t ever thought about what happens if you do the right thing and then you get blasted. But I never doubted it was the right decision.
Sarah: So many people in political life might have said, politics is
about compromise. You have to give in on some things in order to remain a player so as to fight another day.
Dennis: I had a meeting on the morning of December 15th with the head of the city council and the head of the largest bank, and that was exactly the discussion we had. The president of the bank told me that only if I agreed to sell the municipal electric system would he renew the city’s credit, and if I did agree to the sale, he would give the city an additional $50 million worth of credit.
I said, “Look, I can’t do that. The utility belongs to the people, it’s not mine to sell.”
So why did I choose to do that? I guess for me it was a test. Was it more important to advance politically? I was 32 years old, and I was the youngest mayor of any big city in the country. There were people talking about me being on a fast track for governor or senator. There were even stories circulating that I would do a test visit to New Hampshire. At the same time I’m thinking, that’s all illusion. The reality is in front of me; the reality is I have an obligation to the people who put me in office to defend their interests and not to sell them out.
I didn’t realize it then, but I was really being asked to submit to a view of the world that holds that corporate values must triumph over the public good. That’s the decision I had to take a stand on, and I tell you, it was a time in America when it was considered unseemly, in poor taste, to even raise the issue. “This is what corporations say you ought to do, well, just do it!”
People are now starting to look at the overwhelming influence of corporations in public life and how the public good can be undermined. People are now more sensitive to how the public pays an exorbitant cost for electricity, for fuel, for defense, because of undue corporate influence, and there’s an increasing awareness of the heavy cost of privatization of public resources.
Sarah: You won election to Congress taking a seat that had been occupied by a Republican who had been part of Newt Gingrich’s team. Then you were re-elected twice by a landslide each time. So there is something about your message that is resonating and not only within a liberal fringe.
posted on July 14, 2002 10:04:01 PM new
Thanks for providing the whole story, Helen. It's reaffirming to see that there's still some in government who believe in a moral and fiscal responsibility.
Barbara Jordan was a sharp lady, snowy. Had it not been for her illness, she would most likely have continued to become one of the political giants of our time. She would never have lowered herself to mastering the sound byte however, so who knows.
posted on July 14, 2002 10:38:00 PM new
At Last! A Good example of the topic that I've been wanting to bring up! Thanks, Helen!
Re-read that part about the banks. Just htink that if that city had not been in debt and the city was geared in such a way as to not need bank loans and credit, they would not have been able to blackmail him and try to ruin him.
Right?
NOW you understand Why Bush and the GOIP keeps trying to get America further into debt? NOW do you understand Why Bush and the GOP has intentionally run America's economy into the ground? No? Let me clue you in.
When a company or corporation borrows a lot from a bank, the bank usually sends a bank representative to the Board of Trutees for that coprporation in order to have a say in how the company is run. After all, they want to protect their invstment and get their money back plus profit -- right? Happens all the time.
Now, when a government goes into debt, the banks can't just send in a representative the same way that can with a business, so what do they do to safeguard that loan to the government? Well, they have several ways of handling it. In history, when one country took out a loan, the banks offered excellant deals on loans to its neighbors. If any country defaulted on a loan, the banks would presure the surrounding countries to go in there with their armies and overthrow the leadership and replace it with a leadership that would repay the loan.
Hard to do that to America, right?
So, the trick is to get America so heavily into debt that the government will have no choice but to do and say whatever they want. Germany, England, and Japan own most our debt. Germany the most - I don't know what their share is curently and Japan's share is smaller than it was.
Therefore, when Ronald Reagan ran our debt up from high to astronomical, it was foreign influences who wanted a hand in running our country for their own purposes. When we stopped borrowing and began to pay back the principle under Clinton, that disrupted the Plan -- whatever it is. By these foreign influences having a hand into our election process and in cahoots with the Busche Regeime and the GOP, the economy was turned around and smashed.
But Wait! There's MORE!
I want everyone here to realize that by January or February, we will be in the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. There! I said it first! We haven't seen the bottom go out just yet, but it doesn't matter whom you put into Congress coming up, you can't stop this juggernaught.
What this amounts to is America getting so far into Debt that she can never get out again. We will officially be the slaves and the Rich and Elite the slavers. Germany will continue to further its agenda in America through Busche and the GOP. When America owes so much to Germany, you will see that we are owned by them and they will be calling all of the shots. It's almost that way now. Why do you think that we are now living in a Police State?
posted on July 14, 2002 11:02:31 PM new
Well he did look goofy running around with his hair on fire. And just how did it get that way ?
He was trying to cut a metal ribbon with a blow torch, something arranged by political hacks as a publicity stunt a put up show for the voters you the kind of thing that if someone else does it is a scam.
I mean there were reporters scrambling one way to get away from him and running another way to try and catch the spectacle.
Dogs started barking and babies began screaming it was mass hysteria.
And all this guy had to do was cut a tiny piece of metal with a torch Thanks GOD he was not entrusted with something like a nuclear power plant.
