This was published by Joan Chittister before today’s elections.
What checks and balances?
From Where I Stand by Joan Chittister, OSB
I remember where I was the day Congress approved the decision of the president to invade Iraq. In fact, I wrote about it in this column. I was in Ireland where I had been watching the British Parliament debate the issue on public television for days.
Members of Parliament riddled Tony Blair with questions.
Some cabinet members, absolutely appalled by the level of “proof†offered to support the contention that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, resigned.
Here, in the United States, on the other hand, after almost no debate whatsoever — certainly none the public could see — our Congress marched down the steps of the Capitol, looked into the lens of television cameras and said to the American public, “We have to get behind the President.†With very few exceptions. Almost to a person. A unanimous vote — minus one.
What’s more, anyone who didn’t “get behind the President,†anyone who even so much as questioned the invasion, got labeled “unpatriotic.â€Â
That was, of course, before it was clear there were no weapons of mass destruction after all.
That was before the dead and wounded of both stripes — U.S. and Iraqi — began to be paraded across the screens of the country in lieu of those applauding members of Congress.
That was before it began to dawn on the U.S. public that not only was there no justifiable reason for going into Iraq, there was, apparently, no way of getting out. Honorably. Without leaving in our wake the destruction, genocide, and civil war which we had unleashed there.
As a result, it seems, the mild, docile, mute, nonconstitutional approach of the U.S. Congress in the face of an imperial presidency has come home to roost.
This year’s mid-term election is not simply a commentary on the presidency. It is a commentary on a say-nothing, do-nothing Congress, as well. The degree of public dissatisfaction with Congress as an institution shines bright and clear in every single poll on the subject. But is that fair?
Doesn’t the responsibility for successful governance lie squarely with the presidency in a democracy? Well, maybe. But not always, And, actually, only partially at any time.
In a democracy, interestingly enough — at least in this one — it is not always when the presidency and the Congress are in agreement that the country is necessarily getting the best possible government. In fact, people are beginning to say out loud in this country that this government, though apparently totally integrated, is “broken,†defective — in other words, dysfunctional.
Broken? Impossible. Everything the present Administration has proposed is now a law.
Only the middle class face rising taxes. The Administration tells us that not taxing those who are best able to pay will boost the economy by boosting corporate profits, yet the minimum wage stays exactly the same.
We can now invade any country we want to whether we can prove cause or not and that will surely “improve our economy†by keeping the military-industrial complex working.
Now we have the legislative right to redefine torture and the Geneva Conventions. That means that what we say is not torture isn’t, and any foreign suspect is, therefore, at the mercy of our techniques, international law or no international al. No one tells us, of course, when that new technique won’t also be extended to our own prisoners and suspects.
Best of all, when we put someone in jail, thanks to the loss of the principle of habeas corpus, they will not be allowed to appeal to the courts to determine if their incarceration is really legal, really based on fact. Now we can lock up people we don’t like and just throw away the key.
And while all of this was going on we heard hardly a sound out of Congress about any of it. Legislation is swift and easy in a veritable one-party system.
But how can that be? I mean, if the likes of you and me frown when we hear those things, don’t you think we ought to be able to find that same uncertainty on Capitol Hill?
Well, the Democrats say they’re at the mercy of a Republican majority and so they’re powerless to do anything about anything. But they also say very little anywhere else that indicates to the U.S. public why they opposed such programs — if they did.
The Republicans say they’re protecting the country and so anything goes. Including our integrity, apparently. Their role, they say, is to see that the laws this president wants passed get passed. So much for the rest of us.
Clearly, party politics has taken over the whole notion of personal responsibility, or public service, or high ideals.
“GOP Candidates Running Away from their Party,†the CNN headline reads as the election draws near — which is very strange given the fact that all of them stayed with that party, with those programs, with this philosophy of slash and burn almost entirely.
No doubt about it, these years have reshaped the very nature of a checks and balances system.
One thing this recent history has made clear: members of Congress can’t possibly be voting their conscience. The vast majority are all clearly voting the party line. The numbers are always the same. And those who don’t — like John Murtha for instance — find themselves alone or isolated. And that despite the failure of present policies.
The question upon which the credibility of the U.S. now depends is whether or not, having destabilized Iraq, having created the vacuum that is creating a civil war, it is better for that country for us to leave now or to stay and clean up the mess we’ve made — if such a thing is possible. All we have is the word of a president who says we won’t leave till “the job is over.†Whatever that means.
Despite the centrality of the Iraq question in all U.S. endeavors, we haven’t seen a single congressional debate on the subject — let alone weeks of it.
Surely that is a sign that something in our system of checks and balances isn’t working. What can possibly be done to fix it?
Well, maybe we need some citizen committees to lead the country in a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of proportional voting. Giving political parties the percentage of seats equal to the percentage of votes they garner in elections rather than the winner-take-all system we have now might at least broaden the voice of the public in Congress.
Or maybe we need to consider dividing the government so that whichever party wins the presidency, the other party, by default, gets the Congress in order to require the kind of compromise we are now not getting.
Or maybe the only thing we can possibly do as individuals is to refuse to register as anything but Independent, however many parties are running. That way none of them would be able to take a single vote for granted.
From where I stand, that means that there would then be only one political party to placate again: us. It’s a thought.
August 18th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Documented are the defective Checks and Balances JUSTICE DENIED! These arise from the U.S. Senate stated Department of Defense (DOD) many “experiments that were designed to harm”! [6] Reported is that, under the national security cover of past wars, the DOD Research and Development (R&D) “to harm” lessons learned were from their being conducted on “hundreds of thousandsâ€. The experiments were in direct disobedience of the DOD Secretary’s TOP SECRET order. [2] Then known by the Secretary’s of all Services, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the DOD R&D Board. In December 2006 the also Executive Branch, civilian “Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)†was established by the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch. [7] It is not hindered by outside oversight and accountability! Starting in 2007, their R&D is under the cover of its “NATIONAL SECURITY MISSIONS”. Are the BARDA, from the DOD “Biomedical†Project 112, lessons learned continued on the general public? [8]
“”IT WAS NECESSARY “TO CONCEAL THESE ACTIVITIES FROM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC IN GENERAL,” BECAUSE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE “UNETHICAL AND ILLICIT ACTIVITIES WOULD HAVE SERIOUS REPERCUSSIONS IN POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC CIRCLES AND WOULD BE DETRIMENTAL TO THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF ITS MISSION.”" U.S. Supreme Court 1987 STANLEY Case; Footnote 4, Page 688. [3] Re. CIA experiments on military. Verified is another Executive Branch agency’s conducted for the greater good end justifies the covered up “to harm” means!! The STANLEY case confirms the Supreme Court military FERES Case [1] by treating these derelictions of duty as its “activities incident to serviceâ€! Followed by the U.S. Congress’s few was the next year 1988 Veterans’ Judicial Review Act. Established was the Veteran’s Legislative severely restricted, Article I Court. “The court may not review the schedule of ratings for disabilities or the policies underlying the schedule.”, i.e., the R&D experimental effects and their causes! The Veterans Court Chief Judge’s no teeth statement. [5] The Executive Branch, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was given FINAL DECISION authority on these issues. [9] Included is the power of NO APPEAL to this Legislative Veterans Court or to the independent U.S. Judicial Branch Courts. The DOD needed for treatment, policy revealing evidence is withheld during the VA “disabilities†procedure. If allowed an APPEAL, it is not part of the record at the Article I Veterans Court. It is also missing during the next step at the U.S. Judicial Branch Article III, Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Each project completes the R&D process. The prior R&D lessons learned are reviewed. The then Scope of Work defines what the experiment is “designed†to accomplish. The how, where, when and who is identified. The conducted RESEARCHED cause and effects are closely followed. From the results are DEVELOPED safe production, use, the needed for treatment and protection. All is in the Executive Branch (DOD & BARDA) record! This needed for treatment evidence: 1. Is not in a subject’s Medical History, so that they never the wiser become. And 2. The resulting disabilities are not in the VA “schedule of… disabilitiesâ€!
In 2007 the U.S. Congress still has not corrected the U.S. Senate’s 1994 reported 50 years of DOD “designed to harm” policy. There is now no 63 years later “Right to Knowâ€. The “Veterans Right to Know Act†was proposed in the 2005 and H.R. 4259 [109th] 2006 Congress. It never became law. This is consistent with Congress’s 1988 “may not review†severely restricted Veteran’s Court. [5] Lost are those prior to rights that convicted rapists and murderers keep! [4] After they complete Honorable Service, despite the efforts of some, Congress has not given back to veterans these rights. All is justified by the for the greater good end justifies the means! The Executive Branch (BARDA & DOD) hides behind it and the security cover up. The U.S. Supreme Court has left redress to the U.S. Congress. A few in Congress also support the end justifies the means and are preventing correction, i.e., the still no “to harm” reforms.
PLEASE, HOLD YOUR MEMBERS IN THE U.S. CONGRESS ACCOUNTABLE! WITH CONGRESS’S TO-DATE BEHAVIOR, DO NOT THE PROVEN “TO HARM†EXPERIMENTS CONTINUE? AND ON YOUR LOVED ONES?
ATTACHMENT: AN EXAMPLE & VETERANS BACKGROUND.
REFERENCES:
[1] Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135, 146 (1950).
[2] DOD Secretary’s 26 February 1953 NO non-consensual, human experiment’s Memo pages 343-345. George J. Annas and Michael A. Grodin, “The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code; Human Rights in Human Experimentation” (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). In REFERENCE [6] as NOTES 72, 168 & 169.
[3] U.S. SUPREME COURT, JUNE 25, 1987, U.S. V. STANLEY, 107 S. CT. 3054 (VOLUME 483 U.S., SECTION 669, PAGES 699 TO 710). In REFERENCE [6] cited in NOTE 169.
[4] U.S. State Dept., “U.S. Report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights July 1994, Article 7″.
[5] Chief Judge and colleague statements, Court of Veterans Appeals, Annual Judicial Conference, Fort Meyer, VA., 17 & 18 October 1994. http://www.goodnet.com/~heads/nebeker.html
[6] December 8, 1994 REPORT 103-97 “Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans’ Health? Lessons Spanning Half a Century.” Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, 103rd Congress 2nd Session. With NOTES 1 to 170.
[7] Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Bill S. 3678 2006. Signed into law 16 December 2006.
[8] “Project 112 (Including Project SHAD) Home†chemical and biological experiments; http://www.1.va.gov/shad/
[9] United States Code (USC) Title 38, 511. Decisions of the Secretary; finality. http://www.law.cornell.edu