ThinkProgress reports that on this day, 8 years ago, then-Presidential hopeful and Republican nominee, George W. Bush told convention-goers that he would uphold the honor and dignity of the office of the President of the United States of America:
So when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God.
He also promised to uphold the laws of our land. Do you think he’s done so?
Over the past 8 years, we’ve been made criminals, guilty until proven innocent, under the United States Patriot Act – legislation so vigorously pushed by the Bush administration that most members of the House and Senate never had a chance to even read it.
We’ve lost our right to Habeas Corpus and Writ of Quo Warranto – the rights that guarantee us the ability to defend ourselves against wrongful persecution and perhaps the most sacred rights we have save our rights to life, liberty and happiness.
We’ve read news story after news story about torture committed by the United States against detainees. We’ve heard the Bush White House defend the practices of waterboarding and other extreme methods of interrogation over and over, in clear opposition of international law and the Geneva Conventions.
We’ve seen members of the Bush administration thumb their noses at the Congress.
We’ve seen monstrous legislation bullied through the chambers of the Legislature that defy our Constitutionally guaranteed rights under the 4th Amendment.
We’ve read over 35 separate articles of impeachment against the President along with a number of them against his Vice President, based on felonies and misdemeanors.
We’ve seen an administration that obstructed justice and blocked the efforts of a commission to investigate and report back to the American people on the events of September 11, 2001.
We’ve all felt the effects of a falling dollar value, hyperinflation and trillions upon trillons of dollars in debt to pay for a military industrial complex in support of a war that the President, himself, lied to the American people about.
We’ve seen articles of the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi citizens and thousands of dead American service people.
So, my question is this:
Precisely what law of the land and what honor and dignity has Mr. Bush upheld?
