We don't need the latest signing statement. We don't need their 935 lies. When Bush and Cheney put torture "on the table" they made their removal a moral imperative.
No nation that sanctions torture can claim to be just or moral. The treatment of the people who are in the custody of a state, and the processes by which they are committed to state custody are central to the identity and moral authority of a nation.
Whether it be an orphaned or abused child, a mental patient who presents a danger to self or others, a criminal suspect, a convicted criminal, or a person captured in armed conflict,
if the processes for committing the individual to state custody are immoral or unjust, then the state is immoral and unjust. If the treatment of those in custody is inhumane, then the state is inhumane.The story of our nation is the story of our efforts to create a body of law committed to the principle that legitimate government power can only be derived from the consent of the governed; the sanctity of human dignity; and the inalienable right of every person to equal treatment under the law.
And under that body of law Drowning Torture ("Waterboarding" to the propagandists) is absolutely and unequivocally forbidden. It is as clearly forbidden as "The Rack" and "Thumbscrews."
Bush and Cheney refuse to acknowledge that Drowning Torture is immoral, inhumane, and prohibited in ALL circumstances. They refuse to acknowledge that arbitrarily seizing and indefinitely committing any person to U.S. custody is prohibited in all circumstances. They claim to have the absolute power to employ their own secret "definition" of torture. They openly kidnap, indefinitely imprison, and abuse those they arbitrarily label "enemy combatants." And they "defend" their acts by invoking the absurd notion that the American presidency has "unitary authoritarian power."
We don't need to prove they ordered government officials to torture. We know they did. We have proof that would stand up in any court, but we don't need it. Their refusal acknowledge that drowning torture is torture makes them outlaws who cannot be allowed to wield massive power of the American presidency.
The emperor has no clothes. Unfortunately, fascists have deceived many Americans into believing that they are not fit to judge -- that they can't trust their own eyes. Even when we are in complete agreement that an act clearly violates our most treasured principles, many defer to authorities who tell us "it is all too complex for the likes of you."
Members of Congress are promoting that deception when they dismiss the truths we confront them with. They are promoting the deception when they refuse to formally accuse (impeach) and unequivocally reject the lunacy of a "unitary authoritarian executive." They are promoting the deception when they tell us impeaching Bush and Cheney will "take too long" or that it would be a "slow process."
The truth is that the House could vote out articles of impeachment next week.
The case could be made in a day. The Senate could render a verdict by Valentines Day. (OK, the blowhards could probably draw it out to the end of the month.)
Certainly the Bush regime usurps unconstitutional power and violates the principle of consent with their signing statements, but if Congress were to impeach for the latest signing statement they would be likely to allow themselves to be led down a rat hole of bogus "legal technicality" and "constitutional complexity" that fascists invoke to obscure reality. If they go after signing statements in general, they open it up to an endless examination of the 1000+ signing statements Bush has penned.
Our prohibitions against arbitrary imprisonment and abuse are so basic, and the regime's "defense" so ludicrous, any claim that some "technicality" actually gives them the power to do that which we so clearly forbid is easily cut off without debate. You don't need a law degree, or even a high school degree, to see that absolute power to commit such blatant crimes is NEVER freely given to a leader; it is only taken by deception or force.
Congress is sworn to "support and defend" the Constitution. They have a duty to impeach NOW and seek to remove by the fastest means possible.
Impeachment for any of their many crimes is better than no impeachment, but impeachment for torture is a call for the nation to recommit to the tenets on which our Constitution, and therefore the nation, is founded. Not just the principle of consent, but our respect for human dignity, justice, and equal treatment under the law. It is the simplest case and provides the fastest path to removal.
Impeachment for torture forces an "up or down" vote on the most egregious and indefensible of their "high crimes" against the Constitution itself. It forces Members of Congress to choose:
- "Are we a nation that sanctions torture or forbids it?"
- "Is the USA a war criminal nation or just and moral one?"
- "Are you with the torturers or against them?"
- "Are we a nation founded on the principle of consent, or are we a an authoritarian regime?"
Whether they vote Yea or Nay as a body, it doesn't really matter. Members of Congress will make their choice, but theirs is not the last word. Forcing a vote allows the American people to will bear witness to what they do and render THEIR judgment in the voting booth.
By refusing to impeach, they are denying us OUR rightful opportunity to weigh in. 
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