Inflammatory Opinion:
The Clear and Compelling Case for a Truth Commission
Mr. Scalia's remarks drew "quite an uproar," according to a member of the law faculty of the University of Freiburg. Apparently, at one point during Mr. Scalia's talk, he was challenged by a member of the audience who reminded him of applicable U.S. treaty obligations, a counterpoint that caused the Associate Justice to rant, "If [a detainee] was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs," a stunning statement (aside from Mr. Scalia's description of 'my army'):
- many of the Gitmo detainees were in fact not captured in any combat situation;
- the Geneva Conventions protocols to which the United States is a signatory explicitly set forth the matters regarding battlefield captures;
- and the United States was the aggressor nation in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where most of the current detainees were originally found, although neither nation yielded the principal target for which the assaults were justified prior to action, which was the top leadership al-Qa'ida.
This becomes further evidence that the United States Congress, President, and Judiciary are in no way prepared to once and for all come to grips with the legacy of the Bush Administration and the neo-conservative radicals who have taken over the halls of the legislature, the executive branch, and the federal courts. At this point, nothing short of the appointment by the next President of the United States of a Truth Commission with nearly absolute subpoena powers will serve to extract from the participants in this degradation of the Republic the details of and truth about the actions they committed, the decisions they made, and the extent of the harm they caused.
It is to the end of the eventual establishment of such an independent investigatory body that I shall in the months ahead ask others to join me in demanding of any candidate running for the Office of the President of the United States in 2008 that he or she commit to the establishment of a Truth Commission of the United States of America within 90 days of assuming office, and that this Truth Commission comprise independent members without any connection whatsoever to those who have been the architects and engineers of the policies of the Bush Administration. As suggested, this Truth Commission must be vested of full powers to subpoena any person deemed necessary, be he or she a politician, a military official, or a member of the judiciary; and the Commission must be charged with having no duty to negotiate any terms upon which testimony will be rendered by any person so subpoenaed. In other words, with regard to this second point, the results of the Truth Commission of the United States will not be suspect and thoroughly tainted as were the results of the 9/11 Commission or the criminal investigation by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald of the outing for political revenge of non-official cover operative Valerie Plame.
In the months ahead, I shall more fully and formally press this demand upon candidates, and I shall for my own part make agreement to the pledge the first requirement of any candidate seeking my assistance, financial support, and/or endorsement. No less than a Truth Commission will right what has happened during the Bush Administration, and no less than harsh, swift, and certain justice of retribution rendered upon the neo-conservatives and their social and political allies will ensure that this era is not soon repeated.
The Dark Wraith has spoken.
Published 3/26/2006 04:23:00 PM
<< 25 Comments Total
Good evening, Mr Wraith.
I have every reason to believe that you will be very careful in your language in drawing up such a document, and I support your end in this.
And while I believe that this is quite probably the only way the truth will ever see the light, I feel that witholding my support from a candidate due to a refusal of this endorsement would be going too far.
Nevertheless, I am prepared to put my signature on such a petition.
Let me know when.
Good afternoon, Progressive Traditionalist.
I am glad you posted the comment that you did. My wording could have been interpreted to mean that I would anticipate that petition signers would be committing to my personal unwillingness to support candidates who do not pledge to a truth commission. The last paragraph of my article flowed a little too smoothly from the one before it. I have now edited the post, adding a clarifying clause.
I do intend to write the statement in such a way that candidates understand that there is a consequence in ignoring the call. Specifically, the signatories of the demand will be published by blog, name, or pseudonym as desired, and candidate agreeing to and ignoring the call will be published for all to see.
Signatories may carve out in their own writings their considered actions for candidates pledging and not pledging.
What has always appalled me about Scalia is the lengths to which his people will go to prevent the public from reading his direct quotations when he is speaking before sympathetic (and, sometimes, not-so-sympathetic) audiences. Which brings an interesting point- is there any precedence for censuring- and/or potentially removing- a Supreme Court Justice for misconduct? I realize that this could only happen under the most extreme circumstances- but has it ever been considered?
Good evening, LindiBee.
If memory serves me correctly, Samuel Chase was the only Supreme Court Justice ever to be impeached. He was subsequently acquitted.
Other judges have been impeached and found guilty, but these actions are extraordinarily rare in the history of the Republic. As a general rule, impeachment for rendering unconstitutional decisions is way off the table anymore, but impeachment for improper conduct is still within the scope of possibility. It is, however, no mean trick.
In the case of Scalia, the action would best be initiated by a sitting President, who would then need the unyielding support of the Congress. To have that, you would need a veritable lynching mood pervading Capitol Hill.
It is, however, not impossible; but it's a real long shot at this time. That having been said, Scalia has pushed it about as far as any Justice has in recent memory with respect to his increasingly flagrant actions contrary to good and proper judicial form. Even though his ridiculous written opinions and bizarre personal lifestyle are deeply troubling, they are not the stuff of impeachment.
His conflicts of interest, on the other hand, might be. It would take a President with oodles and oodles of guts, backed by a Congress with oodles and oodles of backbone.
The Dark Wraith has then, in that last paragraph, set forth the chances that Scalia is going to be impeached.
I'd like to see the constitution changed to required elected officials (and their appointments) to be under oath 100 percent of the time. Then watch politicians squirm when the commission asks things like
Did you agree to invade Iraq even without UN backing?
His conflicts of interest, on the other hand, might be. It would take a President with oodles and oodles of guts, backed by a Congress with oodles and oodles of backbone.
It would also require a breathtakingly blatant, and unavoidably public misdeed - one so blatant that the serious consequences of impeachment and removal were the only way to remedy it. That way the handfull of Coburns and Cornyns and Frists in the Senate at the time who would still want to protect him wouldn't be able to.
- oddjob
Good morning, O ebon one.
With every sign that the two balances against the executive branch are derelict to the extreme, not to mention in cahoots with Bushco, nothing would give me greater pleasure than a truth commission being empanelled sometime in 2009. And to that end I plan on working to get Feingold nominated rather than Republican-lite Clinton.
Good Morning Dark Wraith,
Absolutely, Finegold over Clinton any day - actually anyone but Clinton, the weasel!
- and I'm ready to sign that petition.
Good morning, Mr Wraith.
Just to let you know that I took that statement to be a personal one, and not related to the petition.
As for me, I had determined that I would not vote for Bill Nelson for the Senate in '06 due to his lack of support for the filibuster effort, but would instead leave that space blank.
That was before the idea of voting against Katherine Harris became a realistic prospect. We'll see.
Politics is such a strange beast.
OT, but worth the read. (Hat tip, RawStory.)
(Be warned that the first thing you will see is a nice prominent picture of Sen. Dimwit (R-PA, aka "Forrest Gump with an attitude"). Don't lose your lunch over it, just plow on.)
- oddjob
"If memory serves me correctly, Samuel Chase was the only Supreme Court Justice ever to be impeached." -- DW
PoLT acknowledges the Wraith's expertise in matters historical. He was all set to comment: "Do you not mean Salmon P. Chase"? But googling around revealed that it was Salmon P. Chase who was the Supreme Court justice who presided over the court during the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
And, FWIW, it is Salmon P. Chase's portrait that adorns the $10,000 bill. I have only the googlesearch record to confirm that piece of information because I went grocery shopping over the weekend and had to bust my last "ten".
happy monday dw,
i am cheered by your optimism that such a thing might happen. the commission, i mean. if jeb is elected the petition will be the next gitmo list.
Good morning, Dread Pirate Roberts.
You really didn't want to live forever anyway, did you?
The Dark Wraith wouldn't mind having a few friends along for the trip to the washboard.
Good morning, Dark Wraith.
That is such a great idea! A commission to find the truth. It bogles the mind with wonderment, after having watched this current administration in action.
Another juicy Scalia tidbit for y'all. (Hat tip, Americablog.)
- oddjob
Good afternoon, Dark Wraith.
I think it's a wonderful idea. At last, to have an explanation as to where the hell our civil liberties went, and why. I'll cheerfully sign it, and be happy to help in any way I can.
About Scalia: would "crazy as a loon" be grounds for impeachment? Only slightly joking.
Be very careful, my dear that you don't fall into the McCarthy trap. Ostensibly, his 'fact finding' commission was just supposed to investigate whether or not Communist Party members and sympathizers were employed in the government or by government contractors – a rather simple task on the face of it. That it obviously shifted and grew under McCarthy's unstable personality is a testament to one man’s paranoiac fever-dreams rather than the nature of his charge (at least to a fifties mind-set); but you must see that any 'Truth Commission' would have a similar potential in the wrong hands. I agree with the concept; an independent investigation needs to be initiated. The whole neo-con infestation must be dealt with following Bush’s exodus; just be very careful what you are asking for, and who you are asking to do it. Witch hunts are a popular way of dealing with charged political situations. I would hate to unleash one – even onto the heads of those who actively courted such a thing through their own intransigence.
This is all fiddling while Rome burns anyhow. The true issue is that the majority of Americans are not willing to do what it takes to have government of the people, by the people, for the people. We have become a nation of cowards, too scared and too cowardly to do anything but mumble our disagreement on the blogs and the boards. If John Adams had tried to set himself up as King, there would almost instantly have been thousands of people in the streets with weapons in hand to suck him out of the Philadelphia statehouse and draw and quarter him. Alas, the days of Americans with the courage to overthrow a tyrannical and dictatorial government are long behind us.
The only thing that will ever motivate the American people to rise up from their apathy and return government of the people, by the people, for the people to the United States of America will be when the United States hits bottom, with 50% unemployment, 20% of the population wandering the land homeless, and half of all children going to bed hungry. The last time this happened, we got FDR. But we could just as well have gotten Adolph Hitler. That's the problem with hitting bottom -- people are willing to support any two-bit ideologue who promises them a better life. But right now, that's the only way things will change -- alas.
- Badtux the History Penguin
Won't work...
Republicans will never put their hand on a bible and swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth...
You are right PoliShifter. The bible means little to the pukes; you would have to use a big stack of c-notes for the swearing in process.
Good evening, OddJob.
Thank you for the link to that story. I was planning only to skim through it, but I got sucked in and read the whole thing with no small amount of interest and glee.
I have to say that Gingrich's comment that the Democrats should adopt the campaign slogan, "Had enough?" made me laugh out loud. I think I'm going to make that into a bumper sticker and actually attribute the slogan to Gingrich right on the sticker.
I do smell trouble, though: the voting machines are still a major issue, perhaps even the issue that will define the outcomes in at least several states, along with the control of vote counting and other matters in states like Ohio, where Secretary of State Ken Blackwell is still slithering around playing filthy politics. (I trust you've already heard about the official state Website where he's been posting personal information, including Social Security numbers, of Ohio citizens, coincidentally including a former political opponent who just happened to subsequently become the victim of identity theft.)
As much as I want to remain the unyielding cynic, it does appear that there is some hope for the Democrats. That does not, however, mean that I plan to take my own personal criticism of the Donkey Party to a lower level. If anything, I'm going to do my part to push their candidates even harder to find their backbones and call the whackos in charge what they are.
The Dark Wraith would like to just once hear a major Democratic candidate finally use the word 'whacko' to describe his Republican challenger.
Good evening, Mr. Goat.
That is just so darned cynical of you. We both know better: the government doesn't even have a stack of C-notes.
The government might, of course, get the Chinese to lend us a stack. That might make it tricky, though, when the Truth Commission starts trying to subpoena the Chinese about why so many of them were showing up in the Able Danger threat matrix, right along with Condoleeza Rice and Mohammed Atta.
The Dark Wraith realizes that this whole Truth Commission idea is going to have some thorny implementation issues.
Good evening, PoliShifter.
You know, I'm getting a little averse to going over to your Websites. Today, you're going on about the bizarre government study to find out about cocaine in urine in the Potomac; and a couple of days ago, you reprinted that article about how Arkansas science education institute teachers aren't supposed to mention to kids "natural selection" or the actual ages of rocks they show in classes.
If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to make people think there's something wrong with the leaders of this country and some of its fine states.
The Dark Wraith has his suspicions.
Speaking of being cynical, CNN is reporting that Government investigators smuggled radioactive materials into U.S.
Two teams of government investigators using fake documents were able to enter the United States with enough radioactive sources to make two dirty bombs, according to a federal report made available Monday.
Is this a planned move to:
1. Help generate support for bushco's war on terror, or
2. Help define the brewing immigration debate, or
3. A distraction from all the impeachable offenses, or
3. All of the above?
Good evening, BadTux. I'm glad you've come over to this darkened blog. My Field Guide to Blogging Birds of the Cold Climates didn't mention whether or not penguins are nocturnal creatures, but I'm happy to learn that they are, indeed.
I am presently to publish a follow-up to this article, one in which I provide clarity to my sentiments and thinking with regard to a truth commission and its task. What I am about to publish may trouble some readers: the harshness of my views about the neo-conservatives and the remedies necessary may trouble some, particularly because I must unabashedly put on display that side of my views decidedly not in keeping with my more progressive, tolerant side. In advance, I must forewarn that some of what I say below might not sit well with some, and I shall understand that discomfort. In some ways, it troubles even me that my patience with neo-conservatism has become so truncated that I must revert to attitudes within myself that pose in such harshness. That, unfortunately, is one of the many downsides of become agéd: patience in some areas of life becomes a precious commodity to be reserved only for those worthy of it. Somewhere along the past several years of my life, the neo-conservatives fell off my list of those for whom patience, tolerance, and acceptance is warranted.
Read that post for to see my extended thinking in the matters of the neo-cons, their supporters, and the proper way to deal with the lot of them.
The Dark Wraith heads to the publishing platform.