On Monday, gathering in a conference room in Washington D.C., Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and her advisors worked on a draft copy of the articles of impeachment against President Bush.
At the heart of the charges contained in McKinney's articles of impeachment, is the allegation that President Bush has not upheld the oath of presidential office and is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Article I states that President Bush has failed to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. Specifically cited in this article is the charge that Bush has manipulated intelligence and lied to justify war: "George Walker Bush ... in preparing the invasion of Iraq, did withhold intelligence from the Congress, by refusing to provide Congress with the full intelligence picture that he was being given, by redacting information ... and actively manipulating the intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons programs by pressuring the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies."
This manipulation of intelligence was done, the charge continues, "with the intent to misinform the people and their representatives in Congress in order to gain their support for invading Iraq, denying both the people and their representatives in Congress the right to make an informed choice."
Article II, "Abuse of office and of executive privilege," states that President Bush has disregarded his oath of office by "obstructing and hindering the work of Congressional investigative bodies and by seeking to expand the scope of the powers of his office." The President has "failed to take responsibility for, investigate or discipline those responsible for an ongoing pattern of negligence, incompetence and malfeasance to the detriment of the American people."
This article continues by indicting Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in their actions to manipulate or "fix" intelligence and mislead the public about Iraq's weapons programs. Ultimately, this article calls not only for Bush's impeachment and removal from office but also asks the same actions to be taken against Cheney and Rice.
Article III states that President Bush has failed to "ensure the laws are faithfully executed" and that he has "violated the letter and spirit of laws and rules of criminal procedure used by civilian and military courts, and has violated or ignored regulatory codes and practices that carry out the law."
Specifically, McKinney cites illegal domestic spying as a result of failing to obtain warrants thereby subverting congress and the judiciary in the process: "... by circumventing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act courts established by Congress, whose express purpose is to check such abuses of executive power, provoking the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to file a complaint and another judge to resign in protest, the said program having been subsequently ruled illegal; he has also concealed the existence of this unlawful program of spying on American citizens from the people and all but a few of their representatives in Congress, even resorting to outright public deceit."
The article continues by citing public statements Bush has made that were blatantly contradictory to his policy and actions regarding domestic spying.
While the staff was editing the document, one advisor told me, "As we sat down and worked on this, a pattern became very clear ... a pattern to specifically undermine the constitution and establish a unitary presidency."
The charges addressed in McKinney's resolution are nothing revelatory or new. Rather, they are issues which have been in the public eye for quite some time and have increasingly been covered in the media over the last year.
Despite winning the congressional majority, the Democrats have yet to put forth a plan to investigate what have become somewhat ubiquitous allegations.
Speaker-elect, Representative Pelosi, dismissed any possibility of impeachment, saying it is "off the table" and that it is "a waste of time ... making them lameducks is good enough for me." Although, in the November election, 60% of the voters in her own district cast ballots in favor of Proposition J, a measure calling for the impeachment of President Bush.
In 2005 Representative John Conyers sponsored a resolution, HR 365, to create a special committee to investigate allegations against the Bush Administration � a move that would likely lead to the discovery of impeachable offenses. This resolution was passed to the House Committee on Rules and was never brought up for a vote.
At that time it was widely believed that if the Democrats took control of congress, Conyers would reintroduce the resolution as would have subpoena power if selected as leader of the House Judiciary Committee.
A few days after the Democrats won control Conyers echoed Pelosi's statement saying, "I am in total agreement with her on this issue ... impeachment is off the table." Last week a spokesperson from Conyers office said that the resolution would not be reintroduced and that the Representative had no intention to pursue the matter.
This is a just and noble way to end her congressional career, and the articles or letter of impeachment will hopefully galvanize a debate about their certain merit.
by
Martin (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 10:29:12 AM
This is a just and noble way to end her congressional career, and the articles or letter of impeachment will hopefully galvanize a debate about their certain merit.
by
Martin (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 10:29:24 AM
Kudos to Cynthia McKinney who has cahones where so many CongressMEN and women do not. The next step is to flood YOUR personal representative and the media demanding support for this bill. Representative McKinney has given America a beautiful gift, let's not squander it!
www.ImpeachforPeace.org for other tactics and Action Steps you can take.
by
Mikael Rudolph (50 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 79 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 11:05:28 AM
Write your representatives in support of the McKinney articles of impeachment. Don't use email. Use good old fashioned paper in an envelope with a stamp. They have to open those!
Don't let it get swept under the congressional carpet.
by
Angelo (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 188 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 11:12:15 AM
I have based my opinion with regard to impeachment on a very simple comparison and decided that impeachment was in the best interest of The American People. I simply compared Bush's Tenure as Head of the Oval Office with Clinton's Getting Head in The Oval Office. The choice was simple.
Most Sincerly,
Bill Vanderbilt
by
wiliam vanderbilt (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 11:29:38 AM
...that someone actually got down to brass tacks, and put forth the effort to do the right thing for the right reasons. My first introduction to Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was her run in with capitol police. At that time, I was looking upon her as just one more spoiled brat privlege seeking government official. My, how an opinion can change rapidly.
I salute her from my lonely loft here near Downtown Dallas. I hope, pray, whatever that upon coming back this January, congress does not let this one die. While I may be biased towards the ouster of DUBYA, it's with good reason.
If Bill Clinton can be the focus of years of investigation that result in articles of impeachment for one silly lie over one occurance of Oval Office orality, DUBYA should feel that same heat twenty times over. He has lied from day one. His hubris and hypocrisy has hastened how many thousand to their graves?
Do we begin with 9/11, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, or Hurricane Katrina? Do we count only those born and raised on our soil here, or do we count those whose death was hastened by our encroachment on their sovereign lands? No matter which way the knife cuts, no matter how you look at it, no matter how you count the lives lost, DUBYA's lies, hypocrisy, actions, and inaction have killed more people than any lie President Clinton spoke about a White House humjob.
So I end by putting forth as many thanks as I can offer to Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. You have proven that sometimes people can redeem themselves in the eyes of the world. Let's hope and pray that the congress does the right thing when it gets back in session come January.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 12:06:19 PM
It will be interesting to see how many democrats support it. We must take note of who does and who doesn't. That will tell us a lot about who is really on our side.
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RCG (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 348 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 12:24:58 PM
A big fan of McKinney am I. In fact, surveying DC from left to right, from right to left, I can find no representative who has taken more principled and gutsy stands than she, at a time when the country ~nay, the world!~ is in such desperate need of such same.
But. She needs be go farther, further. As was the same scenario in Watergate, impeachment, indictment, of a pResident, falls far too short. We need to indict, impeach, the Republican Party. They have been witting co-conspirators in a move to hijack their entire body, completely controlled now by either thug and/or corporate interests ( I know, I know, the twain is difficult to divide ).
We must not, as was the case in Watergate, shrink from the larger, dirtier, time-consuming task of indicting the entire kit and kaboodle of criminals. As is the case with termite infestation, if we don't remove the overwhelming majority of these pre-verts ( a la "Strangelove" ) we will be faced with the same chore, task, burden, three years, five years, ten years hence. And, most compellingly of all, as argument, we may very well not be able to survive that procrastinated labor. We MUST clean house......
...of Representatives, and White..., both.
by
muservin (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 50 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 12:44:35 PM
Reagan wasn't impeached for his dirty little war in Nicaragua and as a consequence the Military Industrial Complex grew stronger. Democrats then and now covered up a multitude of crimes, including genocide at the behest of America's plutocracy. Which means the Military Industrial Complex will again grow stronger. Which means militarism, perpetual wars and perpetual profits for those who own the Military Industrial Complex are assured. Our leaders are rushing to fascism for profit.
The rule of law doesn't apply to plutocrats because our lawmakers have been bribed into granting them immunity. Can anyone see a good outcome if we continue along this road to perdition, madness, economic collapse and moral depravity?
by
rabblerowzer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 227 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 1:17:37 PM
Impeachment MUST take place to provide and fulfill a PUBLIC and CEREMONIAL purpose for the nation. The American people must experience a final cathartic event to conclude this dark period. "We the People..." must experience (we must demand) a meaningful, public, protracted, 'exorcism.'
To provide closure: a very public investigation, public hearings, formal charges, sworn testimony, a flood of tell-all books by former insiders, and a verdict are all needed.
IF we are 'a nation of laws,' the law must prevail. We cannot choose to apply the law only when it is convenient to do so.
by
mrk * (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 299 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 2:47:54 PM
yes, Yes, and YES! This is like a flash of daylight in the increasingly clouded sky of politics-as-usual . . . a narrow slice of open field through a packed line of scrimmage. Let's take this ball and run with it!!
We gave the Dem talk-masters their win, because it was the only opportunity that November afforded. Then, as they have so often done, the name of THEIR game became go-along-get-along. This country is in deep, deep dog poop right now, and two years more of it is not what the voters asked for. Thank you, Cynthia, for the opening, and thank you, Matt, for posting this notice of it.
IT IS TIME FOR IMPEACHMENT. Let's go for it!
by
Irvthom (7 articles, 2 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 88 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 2:55:17 PM
Thank You Cynthia McKinney. The opening salvo for Iimpeachment, Indictment, and freedom in the battle for America's future.
We The People do not need an "elected" politician to lead us in our desire for Truth, Justice and the American Way. We need strength, and outspoken passionate leadership. None of the worlds greatest leaders for justice, honesty, freedom and peace. were elected. Yet they led social revolutions that changed the face of the world. Jefferson,and Washington in 1776, Mandela, Ghandi, King, Mother Theresa, Cady Stanton, Susan B. Betty Fridan, and yes, Jesus.
Cythia can do more, achieve more, focus more, without the corrupting, co-opting power of electoral politics. Cythia, shake the clinging corrupt dust of congress from your sandels and move forward the sword of truth is your walking stick.
Lead us, we are here. Ready and waiting. There are more of us than one might think.
by
FAITHCARR (13 articles, 4 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 51 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 3:21:52 PM
of their own becomes a custom of the Demparty. It does look that there seem to be an undercover agreement between the party leaders on both sides: You scratch my back and I will scratch yours.
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Mark Sashine (53 articles, 19 quicklinks, 249 diaries, 3574 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 4:23:15 PM
Whether or not Bush is removed from office, it will still be more of the same shadow government. Thus the reasons for impeachment have little to do with changing American policy.
Impeachment
(a) tells the world that the low standards of the neocons are not also the standards of the American people
(b) restores some confidence overseas in the courage and character of the presently hapless appearing American people and their apparently failing political system
(c) is the first step in returning the rule of law to American politics which presently operates like the wild west.
(d) is just. Bush deserves to be imprisoned. Failing to persue justice is unjust
(e) is necessary to prevent the Republicans from thinking - no knowing - that they can do whatever they want to the Democrats without fear of reprisal
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Yaybob (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 174 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 4:29:27 PM
The ONLY way for the last 33% of our US voters to overcome Bush's pathological control of them is Impeachment. Impeachment represents an "INTERVENTION" for all the hate-everyone but Bush holdouts.
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Dale Hill (58 articles, 0 quicklinks, 102 diaries, 347 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 5:31:13 PM
This president has sunk america as a good righteous country not that we were all that good but not this bad. there is a sickness in washington presided over by a man that has failed at everything he's attempted. and awol air guardsman who became president by stolen elections. this is a sick corrupt administration and bush needs to be helded accountable.
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Leslie Roberts (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 5:42:25 PM
... one that frankly flabbergasts me. I want to see Bush, Cheney and Rice impeached as much and perhaps more than any of you. My issue is that there is no strategy being employed that will counter the obvious tactics the GOP will throw at us.
I have been screaming at all of you to recognize that without going about this in a way that covers us, we are opening ourselves up to being swiftboated, to being treated like Dan Rather when he exposed the AWOL issue, to all of those situations where people put up correct and truthful information but were destroyed because they did it in a way that was politically obtuse. McKinney's imprudent haste is going to hurt us badly.
What Rob and I (and please correct me if I am not representing your view clearly Rob) have been saying is, have the same damn investigations, hearings and subpeonas you would have at the beginning of impeachment hearings anyway, just don't fricking call them impeachment hearings.
Unearth the evidence first, publicize it, THEN, when the public screams for impeachment as they surely will, THEN go ahead with impeachment hearings. If you do it that way, those who would seek to derail the efforts and swiftboat the party will find no one willing to listen to them.
Taking potshots now at the Democratic congress for initiating impeachment right away will be so easy a child could come up with the strategy and talking points, let alone the GOP who are the masters of cheap shots and swiftboating. Has the bloodlust you all have for the Bush administration's heads on a platter blinded you to all of this?
I hate to put it all to you so pedantically, but don't you ever employ strategy in your lives to get something you want, even something absolutely correct and to which you are entitled?
If I could pick one way that the Democratic Party could easily destroy itself and its chances for returning to the majority in 2008 and the Presidency it is hurtling headlong into impeachment like this. For gosh sakes, people, Ms McKinney, etc., keep your heads and be smart about this.
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Steven Leser (227 articles, 49 quicklinks, 34 diaries, 1633 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 6:22:14 PM
In recent time, there were those that we thought were fighting for our interests and the truth were forced to hold hearings in the basement of the congress. Courageous words were spoken in cramped spaces by people who ventured to put their own lives on the line for no gain other than love of the idea they have for the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the dream that was once America. Scant coverage was given to these events and the mountains of evidence ignored.
Neither the evidence, nor the crimes have disappeared and the people that have had their collective noses rubbed into the arrogance of those that would wish to continue to commit said crimes have grown in number and anger. Although a few of the so-called champions of the people seem to be now playing the same-old/same-old politics of the past. One can only hope they're "playing possum", but one has to be leary of that being we're trying to eradicate that behavior to begin with.
No! A flat and simple - no. Enough is enough. When something is rotten to the core, don't ask people to continue to eat from that fruit. I want to up-root the tree that fruit came from as some as possible - and I don't want to do it politely.
It's a crime that Articles of Impeachment were not drawn earlier. It's a slap in the face to ridicule anyone that would want them now.
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Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 15 diaries, 1696 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 8:01:13 PM
I am trying to tell you that you are painting a big bullseye on the party and handing the GOP a loaded rifle, telling them to stand 20 feet away, and saying "Shoot us, please!"
You guys all remind me of the young brother (Banderas) early in the movie Zorro, drunk, three sheets to the wind, no idea of how to fight with a sword, angry at the murder of his older brother, and determined to rush to fight his brother's killer, a seasoned and sober soldier.
As his soon to be teacher told him, "Ah yes, you would have fought very bravely, and died very quickly."
He waited, was taught how to fight properly and with strategy and proceeded to kill his brother's murderer.
You all want us to charge the machine guns. If we are lucky, the Democratic Leadership will quietly file this bill away before it gets more attention. That is my bet. Things will proceed as I hope they will.
We will get to where we want, but only because people proceed with patience and their wits.
by
Steven Leser (227 articles, 49 quicklinks, 34 diaries, 1633 comments)
on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 10:51:52 PM
Yes, I did, and I disagree with most of it. Perhaps you are correct, and the Republicans will do all the things you said. Or, perhaps the American people are already fed up to the gills and only need ONE PERSON with real courage to stand the fuck up and do something brave, and yes, maybe even foolhardy!
You speak like you know it all. Do you? Is your crystal ball any more functional than mine, or anyone else's? Did you study at the Nostradamus School For Enlightened Prophets?
I doubt it.
You are just another critter in this forest. You have no greater gift of prognostication than anyone else here. You are also not the best or most interesting writer here. So get off your high horse and come down here with the rest of us ignernt peepul.
DUBYA's regime is crumbling around his pathetic ears. November 7 was the beginning of the downhill slide. He has lost congress, Dumbsfeld, and Bolton. He has been snubbed by the Prime Minister of Iraq, and Senator Elect Jim Webb. He has had his nose rubbed in the stench of Iraq by we the people and the ISG.
His demeanor is changing, as is his body language, and his frame of "mind". He's coming apart at the seams. If ever there was a time for this action, now is it. It might be enough to push him over the edge. I know I wouldn't mind seeing him come unglued in public. That would be sure to drop his approval ratings below twenty. He only needs to lose eight more points for that to happen.
Perhaps it is jumping the gun, but so what? How much longer must we wait? How many more need to die in Iraq? How many more laws shall we allow him to violate? Should we wait until he lights a match under the constitution? Maybe we should wait until he drops a nuke to start WWIII.
The point remains that at long last, someone in the congress proved there was something resembling testicular fortitude in existence within its walls. Frankly, I think that should be celebrated...shouted from the fucking mountaintops! Maybe, just maybe that might inspire some more people in congress to show the same amount of bravery. That is a thing which has been noticeably lacking from congress for some time.
Yes, investigate away! But do so under articles of impeachment. It's not like the investigations will need to be that deep, or that far reaching. Hell, all they need to do is dig up some videotapes spanning his time in office. There's more than enough evidence in news video alone to prove lies, treason, and malfeasance.
Once again, many kudos to Cynthia McKinney! Let's hope your action is the start of something really big!
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 1:54:50 AM
