United States Constitution, Article II, Section 4
“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
The movement to impeach President George W. Bush has been around for a while now, but this is the beginning of the end, as prominent lawmakers and politicians are taking an interest in the issue.
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, before a Washington state Senate panel, called on Congress to restore the country’s moral standing and commitment to democracy by ousting President Bush. Anderson spoke on the issue by saying “never before has there been such a compelling case for impeachment and removal from office of the President of the United States.”Anderson was one of four people invited to testify for an impeachment resolution sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Eric Oemig. The nestse calls for Congress to investigate whether Bush and Vice President Dick Agendy should be removed from office. Democrats in Congress have said they are not interested in pursuing impeachment. U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash) commented on the issue by saying “I have two words for anyone who want to impeach the President: Dick Cheney.”
According to a new report in Esquire Magazine, Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) has suggested that Congress may consider the impeachment of President Bush before his term ends. Hagel stated that the President is “not accountable anymore”. Hagel is not the first Senator to call for or suggest Bush’s impeachment, but this is coming from a conservative Republican from a safe Senate seat in a reddish state.
In his speech, Rocky Anderson listed some of Bush’s alleged crimes, such as lying about the nuclear threat posed by Iraq; misleading Americans into believing Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa; falsely claiming that Saddam Hussein bought aluminum tubes to gain weapons-grade uranium; launching an illegal was against Iraq; violating human rights, committing was crimes and undercutting U.S. Moral standing by condoning torture, kidnapping and incarceration without charges; authorizing unconditional warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens.
It has thoroughly been noted that the single biggest disadvantage of impeaching Bush is his successor, Vice President Dick Cheney. Thus, it would make sense to impeach both of the for the same crimes, possibly throwing in a few other prominent White House officials, notably Karl Rove. One must keep in mind that Dick Cheney might actually be the biggest evil of all the White House officials. If Bush were to be impeached before his term is over, the Order of Presidential Succession decrees that The Vice President (Dick Cheney) is next in line, followed by The Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi),
The President pro tempore of the Senate (Robert Byrd),
The Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice),
The Secretary of the Treasury (Henry Paulson),
The Secretary of Defence (Robert Gates),
The Attorney General (Alberto Gonzales).
This scenario would bring the United States to an unprecedented situation where the United States would see it’s first female Head of State, even before the possibility of Hillary Clinton being the Democratic frontrunner in the 2008 Presidential Elections: Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House, a Democrat.
ImpeachForPeace.org lists a comprehensive list of President George W. Bush’s crimes and abuses of the law.
ILLEGAL WAR
Bush intentionally misled the Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war against Iraq, intentionally conspired with others to defraud the United States in connection with the was against Iraq in violation of title 18 United States Code, Section 371 [EVIDENCE]
ILLEGAL SPYING
Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805. [EVIDENCE]
GENEVA CONVENTION VIOLATIONS
Bush comprised to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of the “Federal Torture Act” Title 18 United States Code, Section 113C, the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution are part of the supreme Law of the Land.Bush also comprised to deny due process to prisoners of war, indiscriminantly bomb cities, transfer prisoners of war from an occupied territory, and planned, prepared, initiated and waged a war of aggression in violation of U.S. military Code Section 2441, Geneva Convention (I Article 3, II Article 18, Article 19, III Article 13, Article 17, Article 33, Article 34, Article 49, VI Article 3), and the 1945 Nuremberg Principles Articles 6(a) and (b). [EVIDENCE]
ILLEGAL DETENTION
Bush acted to strip Americans of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to legal counsel, without charge and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the Presiden of a U.S. citizen as an “enemy combatant”, all in subversion of law. [EVIDENCE]
ILLEGAL RELEASE OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
Bush authorized the leaking of classified national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an unknown number of covert U.S. intelligence agents to potential harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to investigate the matter. [EVIDENCE]
ILLEGAL FREEZING OF ACCOUNTS AND RESTRICTION TO FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY
Bush ordered the freezing of financial accounts without limit to how groups were chosen to be on such a list, and also ordered himself the power to create blacklists of any indivi he felt was associated with the aforementioned groups. Thereby creating a system of “guilt by association.” [EVIDENCE]
ILLEGAL USE OF SIGNING STATEMENTS
Bush attached signing statements to more that one hundred bills before signing them, within which he has made over eleven hundre challenges to provisions of laws passed by Congress, a figure that exceeds the total number of such challenges by all previous presidents combined, and has used this practice to exempt himself, as President of the United States, from enforcing or from being held accountable to provisions of said laws. By declining to veto even bills, and instead attaching signing statements challenging hundreds of laws passed by Congress, he has sought to exempt the executive branch from accountability to said laws, thereby violating Article I, Section 7 and Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. There articles of the Constitution dictate that the President has the option of signing or vetoing a bill, and upon signing the bill to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” [EVIDENCE]
Which brings up to the million-dollar question: why has America waited this long, and why is Bush still in office? Bill Clinton was impeached by the House (but acquitted by the Senate) for perjury and obstruction of justice arising from the Lewinsky scandal; Richard Nixon left office (while still pardonable) after the House Judiciary Committee had reported articles of impeachment to the floor, as a result of the Watergate scandal which would have led to him being impeachment and conviction. Even a casual glance at Bush’s and the Administration’s growing list of infractions, offences, and other abuses of the law committed since taking office clearly brings to light the massive injustices of the Bush Administration. (I’ll get to that soon…) And let’s not forget the gross mistakes and bad political decisions, such as the Abu Ghraib, the handling of the aftermath of Katrina, the horrible treatment of injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical, and the purging of U.S. Attorneys who wouldn’t play ball, among many many others. (Let’s not forget about the federal deficit which stands at 221 trillion, or making life worse for the poor in America by cutting funding for Medicare…)
Compare Nixon, Clinton, and Bush. Which one has done more harm for the United States, better yet, the world? Nixon had his Vietnam, Clinton had Kosovo, and Bush has Afghanistan, Iraq, and the whole War on Terror, which may possibly include Iran and North Korea. Right now, the economy is in a bad state, the average American is witnessing a decline in services and even personal rights, domestic catastrophies such as Katrina are being left behind foreign policy agendas, Bush has brought Iraq to the brink of a civil war (you might as well argue that the situation in Iraq is already a fullblown civil war), and to top it off, think about the American troops who are probably the ones getting the short end of the shrinking stick. They are doing their jobs, to the best of their abilities, yet they are overstretched and underpaid, forced to fight for a political (failing) agenda. Instead of defending a nation or even a principle, there men and women in uniform are sent straight to a place with thousands of insurgents who are only there to do one thing: kill Americans. The Bush Administration has made the U.S. Armed Forces a mere political tool. They aren’t in Iraq or Afghanistan to protect America. They’re there to manifest Bush’s grandiose political plans and pursue an unachievable goal. All this while risking their lifes, not for Bush, but for America. See the conflicting ideals? And how does the Administration and Bush show their appreciation and support for these troops? By sending the injured to roach-infested hospital wards, and deploying the injured back to Iraq.
George W. Bush has repeatedly proved himself to be incapable of leading a nation. His actions have exposed his abuses of power and gross infractions of U.S. and International laws. Bush is unfit to lead
The can only be one conclusion: the American citizens and Congress must exercise their constitutional right to impeach and convict each and every incompetent member of the Bush Administration, while the people still possess some rights.
Sources:
Salt Lake Tribune – Send Bush packing, says Rocky
Think Progress » Hagel Suggests Possibility Of Bush Impeachment: ‘He’s Not Accountable Anymore’
Impeach Bush for Peace
Impeach Bush
Impeachment in the United States – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Order of Presidential Succession – Infoplease.com
Constitutional Basis For Impeachment
Charges and Evidence regarding the Impeachment
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