- Many articles have been written concerning the egregious
violations perpetrated by the Bush regime, and many of these efforts have
cited specific sections of the nation's rule of law that have been violated.
But like our founding documents, a general impression predominates that
seemingly reduces existent Bush impeachment proposals as being "too
complicated" for the average person. And postures have also been
articulated asserting impeachment as indicative of mere vindictive partisan
politics.
-
- Yes, there are foreign terms to be found in our founding
documents: "corruption of blood" comes to mind. But the documents
are not really all that complicated if one makes a reasonable attempt to
understand them. And justification for impeachment is not that complicated
either. As Jonathan Turley had pointed out, all that has to be shown is
that the President lied.
-
- And his lies are very significant: they were made while
executing a constitutional requirement, and those lies have caused many
deaths among American civilians, our military and innocent Iraqi and Lebanese
civilians. Bush lies are pushing the resultant universal death toll to
near a million lives lost. And although there are many scattered narratives
concerning Bush's impeachable offenses, it seems that his basic impeachable
transgressions should be condensed and readily available for quick reference.
It is for this reason that proposed articles, evidence, and methods of
proof are presented as follows:
-
- PROPOSED BASIC ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT
-
- For President George W. Bush
-
- Whereas President George W. Bush has lied to the American
people and the Members and Senators of the United States Congress, and
whereas President Bush has violated the Articles and Amendments of the
United States Constitution as set forth below, and whereas he has deliberately
failed to observe his Oath of Office relative to said Constitution wherein
he promised to Preserve, Protect and Uphold it, it is established that
for the successful and continuing exercise of government for the Republic
of the United States of America, that President George W. Bush be impeached.
-
- To wit:
-
- I. Violation of Fourth Amendment Prohibition Against
Illegal Search and Seizure
-
- a) Letter from legal scholars
[2/9/06] written in response to the Justice Department's 12/22/05 letter
to House majority and minority leaders and the Senate Intelligence Committee
concerning illegal National Security Agency searches and domestic spying
offered that: " [no] plausible legal authority for such [NSA] surveillance"
[exists].
-
- b) President George W.
Bush personally obstructed justice by denying security clearances to Justice
Department attorneys after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales learned and
advised President Bush that he, Gonzales, was also under investigation
in the Justice Department probe involving the legality of administrative
and ancillary procedures relative to the illegal NSA spying program crafted
by Gonzales while serving as presidential advisor.
-
- c) Both President Bush
and Attorney General Gonzales obstructed justice by legally posturing themselves
in both creating an illegal law and then reviewing same after the fact,
the latter also an aspect of the DOJ probe obstructed by President Bush.
The DOJ probe was initiated by a letter from Congressman Maurice Hinchey
[D-NY] dated January 9, 2006 and sent to H. Marshall Jarrett, head of the
DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility. When Jarrett was queried
by Representative Hinchey as to why security clearances cited in (b) above
were denied, government documents and records indicate and prove President
Bush was not only directly involved, but directed that his involvement
not be communicated to Congress or Representative Hinchey. After the Bush
administration attempted cover-up, Attorney General Gonzales has since
admitted the President Bush was directly involved in obstruction, this
given in testimony as well by Attorney General Gonzales, which is now in
the Congressional Record.
-
- d) President Bush and Attorney
General Gonzales' NSA spy program violates FISA requirements, which require
application to the FISA Court and a 72 hour search warrant follow-up.
A written order, authorized and signed by President Bush, is in existence
and will serve as evidence. This order, proving FISA violation, is irrevocable
evidence proving President Bush is guilty of a felony.
-
- II. Violation of United States Constitution, Article
II, Section 3: State of the Union
-
- Address
-
- "All that has to be shown to justify impeaching
the president is that he lied." Legal Expert Jonathan Turley
on FoxNews commenting on Clinton impeachment
-
- Giving the people and its Congress the true state of
the Union is a constitutional requirement, not a press conference. President
Bush had been advised by his own CIA that:
-
- 1. Saddam Hussein and Iraq
had nothing to do with the events of 9/11/01; this face-to-face notification
[Presidential Daily Briefing requested by Congress and denied by
Bush] took place on Sept. 21, 2001. http://nationaljournal.com/scripts/printpage.cgi?/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1122nj1.htm
-
- 2. Saddam Hussein and Iraq
did not attempt, nor did they obtain, "yellowcake" uranium, and
had no nuclear capability.
-
- These lies were told to the American people and Congress
to initiate war powers authority and to initiate an unnecessary, unconstitutional,
and therefore illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation that
did not attack the United States. 9/11 was neither an invasion nor an
insurrection.
-
- III. Violation of ARTICLE II, Section 2, Paragraph
2: Treaties [See Article IV
-
- Below "Treaty Supremacy"]
-
- a) President Bush has entered
into a treaty with Mexico and Canada unbeknownst to either the People of
the United States or their representatives in Congress. He failed to consult
and seek approval by "two thirds of the Senators present" for
their concurrence. American tax dollars have already been dispersed to
initiate this "treaty."
-
- b) He has unilaterally,
and without the "advice and consent" of two thirds of the United
States Senate, violated international treaties and agreements duly approved
and entered into by the United States with regard to Article II, Section
4, of the U.N. Charter, and also with regard to the Geneva Conventions,
which prohibit inhumane torture of prisoners and those captured and held
for military reasons. President Bush has approved these violations,
conspired to put them in place, and continues to authorize these illegalities
on an ongoing basis. He continues to refuse to provide the Congress with
requested documents.
-
- IV. Violation of ARTICLE VI, Paragraph 2, "Treaty
Supremacy Clause."
-
- President Bush has violated ARTICLE VI, Paragraph 2 of
the U.S. Constitution wherein duly ratified treaties with other sovereign
nations become part and parcel of the Constitution and therefore the supreme
law of the land. These violations are as stated above in III, a&b.
-
- ***
-
- The foregoing brief summary of proposed Articles of Impeachment
has been sent to members of both the United States House of Representatives
and the Senate. A Senator has replied to my earlier memo confirming that
the process must begin in the House. I thanked him for his guidance, but
when he offered that no one in the House had filed articles, I reminded
him that former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia's Fourth District
had already done so. Apparently, the protocol in the House of Representatives
allows for the Members to ignore reality and the facts when initiated by
a member that no longer belongs to it.
-
- As recently indicated, Bush's poll numbers relative to
his job performance has dropped in the last few days to 28 percent. It
would then be safe to assume as well that the 50 percent formerly polled
favoring impeachment must have increased. Acknowledging that any comparison
of this latter number to the former is totally out of line and unscientific,
Bush's previous job performance rating stood at 33 percent, and has therefore
dropped 5 percent! Isn't it easy, however, to conclude those favoring
impeachment has surpassed 50 percent?
-
- If you saw the so-called grilling of Con-da-loser Rice
on Bob Schieffer's "Face the Nation" on CBS a week or so ago,
it was obvious to even the most casual of observers that Rice was squirming,
extremely uncomfortable, and lying profusely as usual. At one point, I
thought Schieffer was near losing it when he finally demanded whether or
not she would answer questions posed to her. I don't believe she answered
any of Schieffer's questions except to deny former CIA Director George
Tenet's claims. This was followed by an interview with big-time Bush opponent,
Congressman John Murtha. When Murtha brought up the possibility of Bush's
impeachment, Schieffer almost fell off his chair. Schieffer's face was
contorted with an incredulous smile that made it clear that as far as he
and CBS were concerned, impeachment was completely off the table.
-
- Congressman Dennis Kucinich [D Ohio] has filed House
Resolution 333, which calls for the impeachment of Vice President Dick
Cheney. If we keep in mind legal scholar Jonathan Turley's definition
of "high crimes and misdemeanors," it isn't hard to translate
Cheney's lies and media manipulations as definable regarding such wrongdoing.
In fact, PBS ' "Bill Moyer's Journal" clearly proved how Cheney
manipulated The New York Times and then used their Sunday morning write-up
to justify lies on Tim Russert's "Meet the Press" to scare the
nation into war. But the Kucinich effort, although doable as an impeachment
platform, will never get off the ground for the simple reason that most
of what it purports as impeachable are not specified duties of the Vice
President as mandated by the Constitution. Kucinich's effort can easily
be laughed off.
-
- And not wasting any time in doing just that, the Cleveland
Plain Dealer rips into him: "Here's the latest example of why it's
increasingly hard for anyone - his colleagues in the House of Representatives,
Democratic presidential primary voters, the residents of Ohio's 10th Congressional
District or this editorial page - to take Dennis Kucinich seriously: He's
filing articles of impeachment against Vice President Cheney."
-
- The verbal assassination continues: "Calling this
effort quixotic defames Cervantes' honorable knight-errant. It's beyond
hopeless. Not a single House member has signaled support, and the chamber's
Democratic leaders, from Speaker Nancy Pelosi on down, can't run fast enough
or far enough from Kucinich's idea." But as far as this observer
is concerned, the fastest guy in the race running away from the truth is
CBS' Bob Schieffer running from the Bush impeachment. Our Zionist criminal
mass media simply won't allow for ANY impeachment talk; as far as they're
concerned, it's so un-American! Appropriately enough, the Plain Dealer
entitled its April 26th editorial, "Run along now, Dennis."
-
- Impeaching Bush is not a publicity stunt, nor should
it be construed in any way as an act of political expediency. Partisan
concerns should be left outside the office of all elected government officials
after achieving success at the election booths. If that were not so, then
why are government rank and file workers banned from engaging in partisan
politics under penalty of law? If little guy government workers are saddled
with the Hatch Act and can lose their jobs for partisan political considerations,
then how do big cheese government officials like Pelosi, Bush and Cheney
get away with flipping off America and doing whatever they goddamn please?
-
- Kucinich explains that he wishes to first "get"
Cheney, so that if and when Bush is impeached, the presidency won't slide
to him. But it is Bush who most flagrantly violates constitutionally mandated
provisions. Actually, the Vice President has no constitutional duties
that can be violated; his job is president of the Senate and he can only
vote to break a tie. His duty is to serve only upon the death or incapacity
of the President. Given, that during the Clinton administration, and now
the Bush administration, the Vice President can be assigned special duties
by the President, but that only puts more onus for his bad behavior upon
the President that assigned him to those extra duties. And in this regard,
Cheney's lies to the Times and Tim Russert do indeed constitute impeachable
offenses.
-
- The criminal mass media and Speaker Nancy Pelosi's contention
that impeachment is off the table, is also totally off the wall. We're
speaking of crimes against the Constitution, crimes against the American
people, and heinous crimes against humanity. Examining the standards of
the Nuremberg trails after World War II, war crimes are clearly defined
and do indeed include the activities of the Bush regime and that of Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as both indictable and punishable war crimes.
-
- As has been offered many times in this space, the number
one job of American government is now to prove its legitimacy and its once
admirable capability of self-correction. If impeachment is off the table,
then so also is the legitimacy of American government.
-
-
- © THEODORE E. LANG 5/6/07 All rights reserved
-
- Ted Lang is a political analyst and freelance writer.
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