The invertebrates who pass as Democratic members of Congress (yes, Feinstein and Schumer, I mean you, but not only you) are in morbid fear of being accused of being soft on terrorism. What is worse than being soft on terrorism is being soft on fascism, and that's what we're seeing these days. It's time to call it like it is, and Cheney, his puppet, and his enablers fit all the classical definitions of the F-word, and the only defense against that stuff is to stand up against it. Wherever it didn't happen, democracy died.

So Osama can huff and puff all he wants, blow up a few buildings, poison our water supply, and maybe even get a suitcase nuke into the country. But he cannot destroy democracy. Cheney, on the other hand, not only can destroy democracy, but he's doing a pretty effective job of it.

The irony of it all is that the so-called fight against so-called islamofascism fights fascism with fascism. When that happens, the winner is ... duh ... At some not-really-all-that-deep level, Cheney and Osama are allies, and this surfaces with enough frequency to cause concern. Remember, folks, that in Orwell's world the perpetual war was maintained because it was in the interests of the belligerents to keep it going in order to subjugate their own people.

To impeach or not to impeach, that is the question. There is ample evidence that Bush and Cheney committed what the Constitution terms “high crimes and misdemeanors” as they capitalized on the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 to expand the power of the executive, violate civil liberties, promote a culture of fear, and instigate an unjust war. From 2001 to 2006, they had the acquiescence of a compliant Republican Congress, but since the election of November, 2006, there can be no legal justification for Bush and Cheney continuing to expand their power beyond what the Constitution mandates.

This places us in a Constitutional crisis which is the most important issue of the day—more important than the war in Iraq, civil liberties, global warming, access to health care and the other burning problems facing us. Impeachment is an appropriate solution to such a crisis. However, while impeachment (that is, indictment) in the House of Representatives, requiring only a majority vote, is well within the realm of the possible, conviction by the Senate requires a two-thirds vote, and is less likely. The question then becomes whether the impeachment process is worth going through?

How to Be President
(with no apologies to William Schwenck Gilbert, who I hope would have loved it)

When I was a lad, I went to Yale;
A legacy admission, I just couldn't fail.
Joined Skull and Bones and downed a lot of drink,
And never ever dreamed of learning how to think.
[Chorus: And never ever dreamed of learning how to think. etc. for each verse]
I dreamed so little, they rewarded me
By making me the president of this country.
[Chorus: He dreamed so little they rewarded he
By making him the president of this country. etc. for each verse]

When school was done there was the Vietnam War
But Poppy got me sent to do a cushy chore
But even that got in the way of booze
So I went AWOL in my walking shoes
I dodged the draft so well, that you can see
That now I am the president of this country.

From job to job I wandered here and there
My friends would see to my most trivial care
From them the baseball and oil deals came
When insiders profited, I had no shame.
From shamelessness I learned to lie with glee,
And lies made me the president of this country.

As Texas governor, I did so well
At doing nothing that the right could tell
For NAC I'd be the perfect tool,
Behind the scenes they'd get their chance to rule.
A dummy is what I was meant to be,
A dummy who is president of this country.

I got the job because of ballot pranks
My brother and Scalia get a lot of thanks
Bin Laden saved me from the fate so gray
Of accounting for my actions in a truthful way.
I lied my way into a war to be
Appointed again president of this country.

Now slackards all, you can take my advice,
And never think of what you're doing once or twice.
Just follow orders from the right-wing throng,
And slander anybody who knows you are wrong.
Let money talk instead of speech that's free,
And you can be the president of this country.