7. Leading campaign to manipulate pre-war intelligence.
8. Creating a secret Energy Task Force which operated in defiance of open-government laws.
9. Directing massive no-bid contracts to his company, Halliburton, and profiting from the same illegal war he defrauded the American public to launch.
10-12. The charges found in H Res 333, also known as H Res 799.
For some of these impeachable offenses, the evidence is not even disputable. They simply have refused to comply with subpoenas, for example. The subpoena that Nixon refused to comply with was part of an impeachment investigation, but the equivalent could be generated in a week by simply opening an impeachment hearing and subpoenaing testimony or evidence from Bush or Cheney.
The signing statements, for example, are completely public. And while Congress should impeach regardless of its own level of complicity in the offenses being addressed, there are plenty of offenses like refusing subpoenas and releasing signing statements that Congress is not complicit in at all.
Violations of FISA and the 4th Amendment are not in dispute. Bush is on videotape lying about the warrantless spying programs for years. He's also on videotape openly confessing to violating FISA. John Dean, Nixon's lawyer, calls Bush the first president to confess to an impeachable offense.
Have Bush and Cheney threatened an aggressive war on Iran? They're both on videotape doing so. Cheney has done so from a ship off the coast of Iran. Remember that in the 1950s our CIA overthrew Iran's democracy and installed a dictator. We have labeled Iran evil and criminal. We have invaded and occupied the nations to its east and west (Afghanistan and Iraq). So threats to Iran are taken seriously by the Iranians. If anything could drive Iran further toward dictatorship it would be an attack by the United States.
Was Bush criminally negligent during Hurricane Katrina? He's on videotape being warned of the danger. He's on videotape claiming he was never warned.
Have Bush and Cheney used unlawful detentions and torture? The Supreme Court in Rosul v. George W. Bush ruled detainees were being wrongfully imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in Cuba. The Bush Administration’s detainment policies and actions were ruled unconstitutional and illegal - in violation of Amendments V, VI &VII. The use of torture, legally justified by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and thus condoned by President Bush and Vice President Cheney is an additional violation to the 8th Amendment. The Supreme Court again in Hamdan v. Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, et al. ruled that the Military Commissions instituted by the Bush Administration violate the Universal Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions to which we are bound by American law. Again, the Bush Administration’s actions were found by the highest court of the land to be illegal and unconstitutional - violating Amendments V, VI, VII . Bush and Cheney and their staffs have defended these policies on video and in writing. The practice of detaining without charge and the numerous victims of it are undisputed public knowledge. Evidence of torture is voluminous and indisputable and includes public photographs. Bush's signature is on a February 2002 authorization to torture.
Bush openly admits it, but claims that certain torture techniques are not torture, techniques like waterboarding for which Americans have gone to prison, for which Americans have prosecuted Japanese as war criminals, techniques our founders hoped to leave behind in England through the Eighth Amendment.
Did Bush and Cheney intentionally mislead the Congress and the public into the invasion and occupation of Iraq? They are on videotape doing so, and the evidence that they knew exactly what they were doing is overwhelming and has been collected on my website at http://afterdowningstreet.org/keydocuments
Impeachment hearings could be dragged out for as long as desired, or could be over and done with in an hour. No new information is needed.
Ah, but isn't it too late for impeachment?
It is never too late to establish that future presidents and vice presidents will be required to obey laws and the Constitution.
It is far from too late to try to prevent the damage Bush and Cheney can still do in the next 9.5 months, which DO exist.
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
imprunement might be better for our constitutions.
don't waste my time with facts. they are just too time consuming. and when it comes to time, it justs ticks and tocks and gives me a head-ache. let's reminisce about the good ol' days and how wonderful it's going to be when Johnnie comes marching home.
but now- forgeddiboutit! i'm too busy, i can't find the time to tell you, Emerson.
go tell it on a mountain. call out to nancy and harry. tell conyers, too. this train is gonna stop for no-one.
let me count the ways ( and means). and I do mean being a meany, minie, moe.
so get it off the table, open up wide and stuff the imprunement where it was intended to travel. impeaches and herb, maybe. but real live congressional representatives are now being replaced by virtual un-reality.
wolfie is no owl, but he does give a hoot!
by
Wolfie (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 19 diaries, 1084 comments)
on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 6:06:56 PM
A couple of things we can do to ensure impeachment
Darn right it does.
The problem is how do we get the House Democrats to hold Impeachment Hearings? We tried about everything.
The answer we think is GET TOUGH WITH THEM! SOON!!!!
We have a To To List for Today and Tuesday.
Item-1: Send preprepared messages to the Democratic New Hampshire House Representatives to urge them to support Rep. Betty Hall's resolution to push the US House to start Impeachment Hearings. The suggested letter and the comma separated email lists are HERE
Item-2: In Colorado we have after much trial and error come up with a plan we think will force the Colorado Congressmen to call for impeachment hearings. We are having enough of an effect on the Udall campaign that one of the prominent Udall supporters contacted us and asked us to back off. Udall is an incumbent Congressman in CD2 that is running for the Senate in a tight race.
Check out the value of putting rentless uncompromising pressure on Democratic Congressmen who are in tight races. We think it might be the key to getting the "safe seat" Democrats to call for impeachment.
the Constitution and support the laws that govern the nation. When you refer to it as a "piece of paper" and issue signing statements, I would understand it to mean that impeachment is vital to protect the pillars of government.
Obviously the democrats are in too deep with the republicans on the illegal occupations profiteering, that bill as a "War on Terrorism".
by
Stanimal (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 15 diaries, 438 comments)
on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 10:28:01 PM
David, great work! It is important to remind everyone that impeachment is the means by which Congress can tell the executive and judicial branches to follow the law, but so far, only a handful of courageous members have pushed for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Others may join in the push to require the legislative branch to do its duty and hold the executive and judicial branches accountable. The way to get that to happen is by more people taking action.
Go to campaign functions, and tell the candidates that you have two short questions. Ask the candidates whether they believe that members of our government should be required to follow the law and be held accountable if they have broken the law. They will almost certainly say yes. People inherently understand that if our governors can violate the law without consequences, then they will abuse their power. Then, ask if they support impeachment of Bush and Cheney for their numerous offenses. Videotape your Q & A, and put it up on the web.
For more information on the push to have New Hampshire’s Legislature pass legislation requiring institution of impeachment proceedings in the U.S. House of Representatives, see http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0804/S00172.htm
Our governors at all levels now routinely violate the law without consequences. The checks that the people had to hold our governors accountable have been almost completely eliminated.
Currently, we no longer get to elect our leaders or throw bad ones out of office. Our votes are "counted" in secret on computers, and these "official" secret vote counts have been proven wrong repeatedly. Not only is secret vote counting dangerous, it’s unconstitutional, and when it was put in place, it is impossible to imagine that no one bothered to look at the constitutionality of it.
My article, "Virginia’s Elections Are UNCONSTITUTIONAL?!?!" includes a link in my comment to a video of my conversation with election officials in Virginia who pretend not to understand that computers count in secret. They say no one ever even though of that. Yeah, right!?! It also includes a link to my letters to each candidate asking them to take action to require that our elections be conducted in a constitutional manner. Naturally, not a single one took action.
My discussion with the election official in South Carolina was as laughable, but he did not want to be recorded. Any way, in my articles on Virginia and South Carolina, I point out that not only do the constitutions of both of those states specifically prohibit secret vote counting, but also, so do some U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Everyone knows that the people are supposed to be able to peacefully remove bad leaders through elections, but what if those who control the machines, and their secret vote count, want bad leaders in power? Is there another way that citizens can prevent abuse of power without resorting to violence?
Yes, there is or was another way to hold our governors accountable without resorting to violence. If you want to find out the other civil check on government abuse of power that our Founders provided for us, then read What Happens When the People Lose the Power to Control Government and What You Can Do to Take the Power Back?http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mark_ada_080204_what_happens_when_th.htm
If Congress will not perform its duty to hold Bush and Cheney accountable, then our nation is no longer a government of law, and everyone will suffer from increasing crime, violence, and poverty, the consequences that flow from every dictatorship.
by
Mark Adams (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 90 comments)
on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 11:58:41 PM
our forefathers clearly saw the need to expel anyone who was either incompetent or abused the power of the presidency. this is clearly true with Bush & Cheney. So it's really a " no-brainer ".
by
vin agamenone (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 15 comments)
on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 11:19:44 AM
The litany of impeachable offences of which this administration is guilty should be clear to anyone with an IQ slightly above that of mud, and to any demonstrably sane person who has the ability to think for himself. But here in New Hampshire, where impeachment is currently being debated in the House of Representatives, there is little sanity on this side of the paradigm shift.
An article in the Concord Monitor today describes the rally last night in favor of impeachment this way:
"The event drew a variety of entertainment. An Ethan Allen impersonator from Vermont kicked off the show by proclaiming Cheney and Bush 'vain, arrogant, corrupt, unelected and impeachable'. Next up came a music video featuring images of Cheney in a devil suit and Bush as a vampire looming over the neck of the Statue of Libery and a song with the line: 'You lied, you lied, you lied - and because of you thousands of people have died."
With coverage like this, who needs any more facts?
Don't hold your breath waiting for the neanderthals here in New Hampshire State government to actully make a difference. I've lived here for 32 years, and the plodding mentality I see all around me is downright depressing.
by
Bill Cain (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 271 comments)
on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 11:28:25 AM
How do we get Congress to act when the bulk of the body is so guilty of corruption and complicity? My feeling is that our Reps are so dirty that they fear the investigations themselves. We have waited too long, I see no public pressure adequate to institute proceedings at this time.
But you know, doing the right thing needs not wait on surety, or even expectation of success. We must keep pushing.
by
Torus (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 12:02:27 PM
together with Bush”. You say “Impeachment is an investigation, leading to an indictment.”But nothing you say suggests you have reviewed the House Rules on Impeachment (#603 and #604) to come up with a workable plan.
by
Samuel Bryan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 111 comments)
on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 3:44:18 PM
Too bad that Nancy Pelosi does not understand her responibilities to the constitution.
Everyone who agrees with this should send Nancy Pelosi a link to this article. No doubt she lacks the time to read such a long article but perhaps her staff can read it and digest its contents for her.
You can send such a link by visiting her contact web page.
by
PrMaine (8 articles, 5 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 287 comments)
on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 5:59:04 PM
