Dear Congressman Conyers:

by Ted Lang - July 29, 2007

The results of my having contacted our “elected representatives” are ZERO!

Of course your response was ZERO. Don't you know that Congress only responds to AIPAC and Christian Zionists?

What goes around comes around. I remember when The New York Times was struggling to suppress the monumental embarrassment of the Downing Street Memo, released by The Sunday Times in the UK on May 1, 2005. I’ll never forget that date because I supplied it to none other than Dr. Daniel Ellsberg on the occasion of his presentation detailing the Cheney-Bush administration’s lies that got US into Iraq. He paralleled those lies to the Gulf of Tonkin lies uttered by President Lyndon Johnson leading to the unnecessary deaths of 58,000 of our military in Vietnam. I called the date out to him from my seat in the third row left as he fumbled for it while delivering his presentation in an auditorium at William Patterson University in Wayne, NJ back in December 2005.

Although a die-hard Republican until the rise to power of the current Cheney-Bush dictatorship in America, approved and fully supported by the Democratic Party, I admitted in my e-mails and copied letters to Congressman Conyers that I had been a Republican, but my real political leanings were always that of a true constitution-oriented conservative. This meant the total rejection of the Clinton regime’s “living constitution.” We are now all experiencing the living constitution of Bill Clinton, which has empowered the criminal Cheney-Bush dictatorship and its Clintonesque interpretation of our nation’s rule of law as being only a “goddamned piece of paper.”

Explaining my former light right wing ties, now totally obnoxious and rejected by me for their having morphed into full-faced neoconservative domestic fascism in Cheney-Bush, I copied in Democratic Senators and my Republican Congressman in a January 2nd letter to Madam of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Here is the text of this former Republican’s letter:

Dear Madam Speaker:

I have been a Republican for over 40 years. Considering the egregious crimes perpetrated by our sitting president, the man I voted for in 2000, I am ashamed of myself, my country and the political party I have supported for so long and to which I have been so loyal.

President Bush has lied to America in his constitutionally mandated State of the Union message when he stated Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, was developing nuclear capability, was connected to the 9/11 terrorist act, and provided training for terrorism. Brave American military personnel have lost life and limb for these lies. Some of those that have survived have lost their minds. My next door neighbor’s boy returned “uninjured” and committed suicide in the driveway of their former home. The people are my age and had no reason to move other than to leave their former tragic surroundings. They don’t even know I know this, and we never bring it up.

This unjust and totally unnecessary invasion hits very close to home. We have a township hero whose service and death are celebrated for the bravery that it represents. Won’t you please honor and replicate that service too for the American people?

President George Bush must be impeached for the lies that have caused 25,000 casualties for our military, as well as the needless deaths of over 600,000 Iraqis. We are now the most hated and cursed nation on the planet. And please reconsider your zest in silencing dissidents such as I have become with “hate crimes” legislation you and your party are proposing. It’s called freedom!

Your opposition to taking action where it is needed, and initiating action where it is not, will forever damage our nation and lead to its demise as well. I sincerely hope that you comprehend my sincerity in making these important requests for America and its people.

Respectfully,

Theodore E. Lang

I copied New Jersey Democratic Senators Lautenberg and Menendez [for whom I voted in the November 2006 elections], as well as do-nothing Clinton gun-control supporter, Republican Congressman Rodney P. Frelinghuysen. Only Senator Lautenberg responded, instructing me on the basic mechanics of impeachment that needed to be initiated by the House Judiciary Committee now totally controlled by Democratic Congressman John Conyers. Menendez, the first Democratic Senator I ever voted for, blew me off and never bothered to answer my letter. Republican Congressman Frelinghuysen, whose office staff I had worked with in the past to elect a Republican New Jersey State Senator, never bothered to answer either.

Since Democratic Senator Lautenberg did answer my memo, which was totally ignored and dismissed by Pelosi, the latter an obvious co-conspirator in the Cheney-Bush dictatorship, I answered Senator Lautenberg’s memo dated March 28th with a follow-up memo addressed directly to him, but copying Democratic Senator Menendez, Democratic Representatives Pelosi and Conyers, and Republican Representative Frelinghuysen. This time around, only Frelinghuysen responded with a two-sentence wimpy note thanking me for “my views.” Here’s the text of my second memo to the Congress persons dated April 30th, which also included my proposed articles of impeachment:

Dear Senator Lautenberg:

Thank you for your memo. Your explanation of the process is appreciated, and confirms my understanding of it.

As to the failure on the part of the members of the United States House of Representatives to introduce articles of impeachment, it is my belief that former Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, of the 4th District, Georgia, while still a member of the House, introduced articles before her departure. I believe this filing is still valid.

I urge you to contact Madam Speaker Pelosi to persuade her to reconsider her posture relative to initiating this very necessary process. She has not responded to the above-referenced memo I addressed to her which you were copied on. Her position, as well as her non-response, is quite disturbing to me and many other Americans as well.

The legitimization of American Government and its validation via the United States Constitution, its checks and balances, its separation of powers, is egregiously threatened by the continuing felonious activities of this sitting president. His violation of FISA provisions and unwarranted spying on Americans by the NSA constitutes a felony. His lies in the SOTU address led US into an unjust, unnecessary and unconstitutional war and a deadly occupation.

His violation of the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions invalidates treaties signed and entered into by the United States as per Article VI of the Constitution, and invalidates also the Senate’s “advise and consent” function as established in Article II, Section 2, paragraph 2, which requires approval of two thirds of the Senators present. His “treaties” with Mexico and Canada fostering a North American Union are similarly unconstitutional and in violation of his duties as established in the same Article.

His documented order to block security clearances to stop an investigation within the Department of Justice while expediting the same manner of clearances to investigate “leaks” of his criminal activities to the press can only be interpreted as an obstruction of justice.

Our government’s legitimacy can be re-established, and our image abroad restored, only by his impeachment. It is a long overdue, and an extremely vital “get well plan” for America. Our nation is less secure than ever because of his deliberate and reckless disregard for laws and agreements entered into with the international community. I strongly urge that you actively pursue impeachment from your political vantage point fully understanding your legal limitations.

Considering the critical and dangerous nature of the nation’s unstable political circumstances, as well as the growing public resentment of politics, the media, and other venues normally providing government corrective action now absent, I intend to circulate this request, as well as prior correspondence, and introduce all into the public domain. I have a platform. I am advising you of this as I am compelled by my personal ethical standards to first do so. I do so very much appreciate your response, as other elected officials I have contacted, including my Congressman, have ignored me.

Again, my thanks for the courtesy of your reply.

Respectfully,

Theodore E. Lang

The results of my having contacted our “elected representatives” are ZERO! I offer now that the most powerful representative of the people of the United States of America is a black man: Congressman and Head of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers of the 14th Congressional District of Michigan. And even more powerful, from a political party point of view is, Congresswoman and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, of the 8th Congressional District of California. Both are Democrats. And both have rebounded and taken control from the “right wing fascist and neo-conservative” criminals and gangsters who have hijacked our government in both the Congress and the White House, and who have indirectly contributed to the unnecessary deaths of brave and loyal members of our military and caused them to massacre hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in far-away lands for no acceptable or discernable national gain.

Remember when Congressman Conyers desperately sought to expose and investigate the Downing Street Memo. The New York Times suppressed the existence of the Memo and the Washington Post denigrated Congressman Conyers efforts and then smeared him as being “anti-Semitic.” Congressman James Sensenbrenner demonstrated fascist power by banishing Conyers’ panel of inquiry to the basement of the House Building, used advantageously by neoconservative Washington Post propagandist Dana Milbank to belittle Conyers’ sincere efforts to get at the truth. But now, in retrospect, were these efforts really sincere, or did Milbank and the Post hit the political nail on the head?

And then what of the letter composed by Conyers and signed by 30 House members considering a Bush impeachment dating back to March of 2006? Is this effort now to be dismissed because the capability to impeach has been achieved? Of what value is a capability which provides the means to solve a potentially fatal massive national political problem if only its achievement is savored, yet the need for action is egregiously avoided? Conyers has repeatedly bemoaned his numerical disadvantage in the fascist/neoconservative-dominated Cheney-Bush-subservient Congress. Now, a black man and a woman in a Democratic Party-controlled Congress can bring this fascist dictatorship crashing down and avoid the next devastating and probably final world war. What’s the hold up? Partisan politics! That will soon become a non-issue. It’s time to rein in the Cheney-Bush dictatorship of America and its subservient members in Congress!

We can now all fully understand the fears and the logic our Founding Fathers on both sides of the “aisle” voiced when articulating the threat of political parties and their devastating influence upon the rule of law and the rights of the people. Political perspectives were back then what they no longer are today; specifically, a distinction as to whether a strong central government is required to protect the individual freedoms of its citizens, or strong irrevocable individual rights were to be guaranteed thereby fostering beneficent government answerable to the people. The great compromise between these political philosophies produced our Constitution. Today, the contest is between the moneyed interests laying claim to both political parties while the interests of the people are completely ignored and outside the equation.

Congressman Conyers had sent me e-mails pleading for support. I answered his e-mails explaining my former Republican affiliation. It seemed he didn’t care. But that was before the November 2006 election landslide enjoyed by Democrats. Republicans, true conservatives, and libertarians, began to embrace the Democratic Party because they simply detested the Cheney-Bush dictatorship and how it has trashed our civil liberties, our Constitution and our military. An Atlanta Progressive News posting of March 10, 2006, entitled, “30 US Reps for Bush Impeachment Inquiry” referenced Conyers’ memo, which was signed by 30 Democrats. Writer and APN Editor Matthew Cardinale begins: “30 US House Representatives have signed on as sponsors or co-sponsors of H. Res 635, which would create a Select Committee to look into the grounds for recommending President Bush’s impeachment, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.”

Cardinale continues: “‘There has been massive support for House Resolution 635 from a very vigorous network of grassroots activists and people committed to holding the Bush Administration accountable for its widespread abuses of power,’ US Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) said in a statement prepared for Atlanta Progressive News. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) also released a book, Articles of Impeachment Against President Bush. The Center is extremely influential in high-profile court fights over issues such as wiretapping, the treatment of detainees by the US, and felon voting rights.” Of course, we now all know the Vice President Cheney engineered these effronteries.

The article notes, “‘We have the book, we are calling for the impeachment of the President, and we’re supporting Conyers’ resolution,’ Bill Goodman, CCR Legal Director, told Atlanta Progressive News. ‘The fraudulent basis on which the President got us into the war in Iraq; the obvious criminality of the warrantless wiretapping; indefinite detention in violation of the Constitution; torture as a part of indefinite detention and other ways; special rendition and torture, which is the outsourcing of torture... All of these violate various laws of the US, and they also violate his oath office which he swears to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, and he’s doing just the opposite, he’s undermining the Constitution and attempting to destroy certain parts of it,’ Goodman said.”

A sense of growing frustration magnified by an increasingly growing number of divergent grassroots political philosophies combined in November, 2006, providing the Democratic Party with a momentum not soon again to be replicated. Yet the Democratic National Committee seems committed to ensuring the status quo. It was my intent next to write directly to House Judiciary Chairman, Representative John Conyers, to encourage his promised actions referencing precisely this context, a mixed bag of disgruntled Republicans, real conservatives and libertarians. Sadly, however, I must now table that effort as it has been overtaken by recent events.

Cindy Sheehan has paid her dues and by far more than most Americans. Having lost her son needlessly for Cheney’s vision of empire, her awkward meeting with the boy president left her vacant of both understanding and emotional relief. Was the “Commander Guy” for real? For such a high level position, a position which in fact is that of the most powerful politician in the world, Sheehan was perplexed. As a bright, alert, and articulate individual with a mystery to solve, the failure to do so leaving an incurable void in her psyche, she pursued a course of action that led to her camping out in a roadside ditch, being arrested numerous times by police and SWAT Gestapo, being beat up by Bloomberg’s NYPD Nazis, and then being shunned and denigrated by “liberal” and “progressive” journalistic venues with neither attribute. And now the latest and most despicable assault and insult of her brief career as a true American Patriot: being arrested once again by the Capital Gestapo. But this time, it was at the request of none other than the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, Jr.

Is this the same Congressman John Conyers, Jr., who whined and cried foul when he was banished to the House Basement to conduct his Downing Street Memo panel of inquiry? Is this the same John Conyers who composed the memo with the signatures of 30 Democrats? Is this the same Conyers who in his 30-signature memo wrote: “I have a Citizen Co-sponsorship page on my website where over 42,000 people have added their names to the 30 Members of Congress calling for the creation of a special committee to investigate possible impeachable offenses. My website also has a form for people to write a letter-to-the-editor for their local newspaper. It is grassroots activity like this, and the efforts of thousands of others that has led to greater awareness of and support for my resolution.”

Conyers behavior in having Cindy Sheehan not only thrown out of his office but also arrested shows this charlatan’s loyalty to only the Democratic National Committee, the latter hoping that revenge can manifest itself in a landslide 2008 election for Democrats. But the Democrats are forgetting two things: first, Cheney may launch World War III, and second, they’re forgetting America has a real choice this time around in the candidacy of a real Congressman, Ron Paul.

Write “Congressman” Conyers a letter? I think not!

Dear Congressman Conyers: Go to hell!