Transition Planning Overview and Discussion

Work is underway to transition. Planning factors have been identified.

Please encourage your friends to take a larger view of these issues: The US government has shown it needs better oversight, not just from within, but by We the People.

* * *



This transition planning is designed to take a top-level approach to the current President's legal problems. Eventually he will be lawfully removed from office. In his wake will remain a mess.

Our job will be to supervise how effectively this government does or does not clean up this mess. The lessons of Iraq and Katrina raise serious doubts whether this government can adequately plan for, much less implement, a credible transition.

The transition is not simply changing the leadership, but effectively outlining a credible vision of what needs to be done; then articulating that in a form that makes sense; and gives the public a sense there is a plan in place to orderly do what needs to be done.

* * *

The aim of this content is to discuss the factors, goals, and success criteria that should be considered when developing a credible transition plan.

The time to start this transition planning is now. The last thing America needs, as happened after the Cold War, is for the leadership and public left confused: "Now that we've achieved our goal, what do we do."

It's time to accept that success is inevitable: The question is what will be done when we arrive. It's too late, after we've gained our success, to then have a discussion "now what." Those discussions need to start now.

* * *

Reviews

Once the process ends, there needs to be a plan ready to execute. Unlike 9-11 Commission Report investigations, we can ill afford the time to argue, "We need to review what happened, then make a plan."

No, this planning can start now. We know fully well what has happened. We've lived through this. The goal is to openly discuss now what we know the problems have been; then do as was done in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution:

1. Outline the list of problems

2. Develop through debate a solution to those problems

3. Agree that the solution will address the problems.

4. Implement, support, and defend that solution.

* * *

Central to this plan will be an application of all lessons learned. The key will be to assess to what extent the GOP can or cannot be trusted to regulate itself; or whether it requires special provisions and rules compelling closer oversight.

GOP participation in this transition planning is not required, although desired. Their inputs may or may not be considered. Their ideas may or may not be sound.

* * *

The American and Iraqi civil wars are instructive. Until there is a clash of factions there is nothing to resolve or leave behind.

There remains a clash of factions, and issues which the American government's factions have not credibly clashed. Out of this clash will emerge a sense of what must be done; and confusion of what should be done.

The way forward is to plan for this, and create a mechanism and process by which We the People, not the US government or parties, can openly discuss issues and decide what inputs are required to guide the factions, government, and branches of government.

The aim of this discussion is not to impose a solution, but to solicit ideas, and encourage us to articulate what we would prefer; and what solutions there might be to what we have needlessly endured.

* * *

We the People owe it to ourselves to be patient with those who, in the wake of new found freedom, find comfort, safety, and solace: Their safety will surface as outrage, anger, and grave breaches of the law. This is not something to worry about, but can be managed.

It is appropriate for We the People to discuss constructive avenues for our peers to share their concerns, express their rage, and accept what has happened: This government has betrayed us, defied its oaths of office, and undermined the rule of law. They did this while claiming they were defending freedom. No, they were perpetuating tyranny, abuse, and arrogance.

* * *

Transition planning means managing the affirms of state. It means discussion what a transition should look like. It means involving people now to think what they want; and then creating it now so it is ready when we reach our goals.

* * *

Transition plans have to start from somewhere; and they have to go somewhere else. The details are murky, but the evidence is pouring in. The question is what can we agree on as our starting point:

1. What has happened;

2. What didn't work;

3. What is going on;

4. Where do we find ourselves.

There is little agreement what has happened. But with time there will be some understanding of what failed; with time we can agree on some solutions.

The key will be to define success criteria for the solutions. These can be measured in terms of improvement, resolution, and effectiveness.

___ What will prevent what happened from happening again;

___ What exploitation of power occurred

___ What types of reviews, checks, and oversight are required before a decision is implemented

___ What will timely resolve the issue

___ What will self-check more effectively

___ What will trump an effort to circumvent the requirements

* * *

The solutions may come in the form of the following:

___ Structural changes to the Constitution;

___ A New Constitution with new institutional structures;

___ Outside mechanisms to apply pressure;

___ More effective communication of problems;

___ Credible challenges to what is impermissible;

___ More effective defenses, support, and advocacy for what is desired;

* * *

What's needed is some discussion of what got in the way of what should have happened; and what was impermissibly rewarded despite its threat to the Constitution.

___ How was illegal activity hidden behind secrecy?

___ How was privilege invoked to hide issues unrelated to national security?

___ What got in the way of people asserting their oath of office fully?

___ What entered the minds of anyone that failing to fully assert their oath, or putting their partisan goals before their oath, would not be discovered, punished, or remedied?

___ Why did people choose to assent to non-sense?

___ What got in the way of prudent use of thinking?

___ Why was abusive of power, non-sense legal arguments permitted to infect the minds of the American legal community?

___ What happened to the leadership in the American legal community?

___ Why were so many lawyers in the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and White House assured that their illegal assertion of power and war crimes would not go unchallenged?

These are not issues which require extensive debates. The adverse inferences: They had a reward for not doing what they should; and they were intimidated from doing what they had a legal requirement to do. That process of intimidation and rewards needs to be examined, understood, and communicated.

* * *

The youth need to see a larger framework for how their education fits. The American legal community needs to see the law applied to those in the US government who recklessly enabled war crimes and defied their attorney standards of conduct.

The US government cannot be rewarded or enabled with half-measures. Where Congress and the President refuse to agree on timely appointments, the judicial branch, in bailing them out with an appointment, circumvents the needed appointment process. The needed, open clash of factions did not occur. This cannot be permitted.

There need to be rewards for refusing to cooperate with abuse, illegal activity. US Attorneys need a mechanism to provide support when they are threatened if they dare assert their oath of office or fully implement their attorney standards of conduct.

Oversight and information is needed, must be provided, and when it is not provided -- that refusal to provide information must be discussed. The issue shifts from whether there was or was not an original wrong, to the certain refusal to do what is right.

___ What will be done to ensure illegal acts of Congress that violate the Constitution are never enforced;

___ How will evidence of this illegal activity not be suppressed behind claims of privilege and national security;

___ How will victims of government illegal activity be given a timely forum to air their disputes, and not forced to remain silent behind requirements to be silent or not discuss reality.

This abuse was allowed to continue because secrecy trumped the law; and loyalty to illegal partisan goals took priority over loyalty to the Rule of law.

The thinking is a problem because our best legal minds refused to timely act; and enabled this secrecy and illegal activity. The question after WWII: Why didn't you refuse? That question applies to everyone in the Republican Party who have enabled this President, abused American citizens, and put their party before the Rule of Law.

If this happens again, there needs to be a mechanism in place that will timely communicate, report, and reveal this dangerous trend. Fair warnings are needed. Then there must be legal consequences for putting something other than the rule of law first.

There have been too many excuses; too many claims of victim hood; and too many abusive people in power who claimed a different reality, but were not effectively challenged. It should not take this long; and the longer it continued, the worse it got. The transition needs to discuss a mechanism to more timely reveal, sanction, and adjust the dangerous course.

* * *

Rather than banning the Republican Party as the Nazis were banned, one approach is to put this problem at the feet of the Republican Party: Where is their plan to ensure this does not happen against?

Until they have a plan, they have no credible claim to leadership, trust, or support. They have first hand experience with abuse. We the People have the power to compel them to apply that insight, and formulate a plan that will resolve this issue.

Without a GOP plan, there is no basis for we the People to ever believe the GOP is in any position to provide credible leadership for a Congressional Committee, oversee an Executive Department, or credibly assert the rule of law as an officer of the court.

Rather than berate the GOP, simply communicate to them their requirement: What is their plan to ensure the legal requirements of the Constitution are fully asserted; that the oath of office is fully enforced; and the Rule of Law remains above all things in the Republican Party.

The question will be whether the Republicans really do what they need to do. The question for We the People will be whether we have a reason to trust the Republicans as long as they refuse to change, and they refuse to produce a plan that will transition American governance to something that is stronger under this Constitution.

They have the burden of proof. We the People well know the problem. The issue is whether this government will or will not provide the leadership; or whether We the People will have to throw another failed plan back at the American government, "Try again."

Our standards of success have been defined: The are the rule of law. Our directions have been clear: The Constitution. The GOP and American government have communicated that they understood these requirements: They took an oath affirming they understood Our Will. Nothing new is required except a change of heart and vision in the Republican Party. They've had the power to do this, but have refused.

They failed. They must be lawfully punished under a just system. We have one. The way forward is for the GOP to decide whether it wants to end now its illegal rebellion; or pretend that they have another excuse.

They do not. The transition planning continues. The issue is whether the GOP wants to lead, or remain the problem.

What they decide doesn't matter. The majority of Americans spoke November 2006. They're ready for change. We the People are ready. The GOP and US Government are not.

They have a problem. We the People do not have problem.

* * *

Something broke down in America. Something can be fixed. There can be a transition to something that is an improvement.

How we get there doesn't matter. The key is to start the discussion now and be that much more ready when the call goes out: What do we do now?

We'll be ready. Tell your friends: We need to prepare a transition plan so we are ready to move forward.