C&L's July Book of the Month
By Mark Groubert Tuesday Jul 03, 2007 7:35pm The Impeachment of George W. Bush: "A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens
By Elizabeth Holtzman with Cynthia L. Cooper."
Let’s impeach the President for lyin’
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the doorLet’s impeach the President for spyin’
On citizens inside their homes
Breaking every law in the country
Tapping our computers and telephonesLet’s Impeach the President
Neil Young
Top Ten Reasons to Impeach President Bush
10. Prevent pilfering of office supplies during last day in office
9. Give Rush Limbaugh a heart attack.
8. Give the Iraqi people an early celebration.
7. Expose Cheney as the real power behind the throne.
6. Screw up Karl Rove’s job search.
5. Wipe that silly smirk off his face.
4. Put a damper on fund raising for the Bush presidential library.
3. To stop all the whining.
2. Chip away at American Idol ratings
1. TO STOP THE MADNESS!
But seriously folks, isn’t it enough already?
Do you think these ideological maniacs are going to go quietly into the night in eighteen months? That they’ll just take some loose pencils on the way out the door? How naïve. As the clock winds down on their macabre circus of mayhem, these hooligans will be making their final fourth quarter moves. Their “two minute warning drill” when they will be going without a huddle is the time to fear the most. And if you think their past maneuvers were criminal, they are probably saving the best for last. In other words, a “Hail Mary” pass might be more than just a football phrase with these guys. Who knows what they have in their playbook for the Final Days. While not privy to these moves, if the past is any indicator, they will be bold, irreparable and more than likely, criminal.
That truly is the number one reason to impeach the president – to stop the madness.
The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens by Elizabeth Holtzman with Cynthia L. Cooper, instructs us on why and how that should be done.
Holtzman, the former congressman and Brooklyn D.A., and Cooper, a journalist and lawyer have put together a very succinct manual on why George W. Bush should be impeached and more importantly that he must be impeached.
No one is more qualified to address this issue than Elizabeth Holtzman who made her bones as a vital young member of the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
For those who say there are clearly not enough votes to impeach, so why bother, Holtzman says, “When the impeachment process against Richard Nixon began, no one could fully predict what would happen. Members of the Judiciary Committee during Watergate tried to do the right thing in the right way. We didn’t know what all the evidence would show, or that President Nixon would resign; we only knew that preserving our democracy required a thorough investigation of his abuses of power.”
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story said the main objective of impeachment is not punishment of the president but to “secure the state against gross official misdemeanors.”
Clearly that time has arrived.
For those who say, just let the clock run out on this administration, Holtzman replies; “Unless a clear message is sent, there is no way to ensure that the use of deceptions to lead the country to war will not be repeated by this president or another. There is no remedy other than impeachment to protect the United States now and in the future from an act so egregious.”
Many fear that the impeachment of President Bush would simply hand the presidency to Vice President Cheney and make matters worse. Others say that maybe Cheney should be impeached instead of Bush or possibly before Bush. Holtzman responds:
“They are wrong. Impeachment of President Bush serves two purposes. First and most important, the impeachment will assert a bedrock value of the country that no one is above the law. Impeachment of President Bush aims directly at a president who believes and acts otherwise. Second, impeachment will remove from office a president who threatens our liberties with repeated and serious violations of the Constitution.”
Although Cheney may have committed numerous impeachable offences, it is the President who Constitutionally holds the reins of power. Bush is legally responsible. While the Constitution specifically allows for the impeachment of the vice president, the buck stops with the President. As we have seen, Cheney has carved out a new role for himself. He has created a kind of super chief of staff, if you will. Some believe he is the de facto President. However if he is impeached first or alone, he would more than likely and most probably offer presidential authorizations as a justification for any alleged constitutional abuses of power. That may be his failsafe plan. But it should not be ours.
Members of Congress have to look at the impeachment of the president as their job. It should not be regarded as a political maneuver, strategy or cause for revenge. It is part of their role as elected officials. Indeed, the most serious part.
Imagine the cop who encounters a heinous crime just before his shift ends. Should he turn a blind eye simply because he can just about smell dinner on his table at home? We as a society would hope not, for if the crime in big enough, their may not be that dinner on the table and in some extreme cases like this one, their may not be a home worth coming home to.
The book is divided into four articles of impeachment:
1. The Offense of Wiretapping Surveillance in Defiance of the Law
2. The Offense of Lying and Inducing America to Support a War
3. The Offense of Reckless Indifference to the Lives and Welfare of American Troops
4. The Offense of Torture in Violation of U.S. Laws and Treaties
Holtzman makes the case for each. One of there articles alone would be ground for impeachment. Taken together they are, in the parlance of one former government official, “a slam dunk.”
What can the average Joe or Josephine do about all this?
1. Gear up. Produce fliers, music, and salons. Go to www.ImpeachBushBook.com.
2. Reach out. Contact groups, protest, take fliers to street fairs. Check out www.Afterdowningstreet.com.
3. Speak out. Call radio shows. Write letters. Make petitions. Make comments on blogs like this. Make free business cards www.vistaprint.com with the reasons for impeachment and pass them out everywhere. It’s the least you can do.
4. Meet reps. Get in these bastards’ faces. They respond to that the most because they like it the least. And they have to be re-elected every two years.
When all else fails, consult your spiritual and religious advisors. Even the president must have one.
While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Bob Dylan
And if it is Cheney who gets under your skin, remember these points:
1. He’s in poor health and will die soon.
2. Historians will treat him very unkindly.
3. His daughter is a lesbian “married” to a lesbian with “ bastard” child. That alone must make him insane everyday. God has a sense of humor after all.
"Have you heard the news?" he said, with a grin,
"The Vice-President's gone mad!"
"Where?" "Downtown." "When?" "Last night."
"Hmm, say, that's too bad!"
"Well, there's nothin' we can do about it," said the neighbor,
"It's just somethin' we're gonna have to forget."
"Yes, I guess so," said Ma,
Then she asked me if the clothes was still wet.Clothes Line Saga
Bob Dylan
Login or Register to post comments.
Impeachment has NEVER WORKED.
And it won't work now.
INDICTMENT is the open path, and it takes removing AG Gonzales and the crony USA in the 2nd Circuit.
Helping to remove those figures is something we can do.
Otherwise, it's just blowing kisses to the moon. Might make you happy, but won't change the facts.
You said it... it's definitely ENOUGH already!!!
Yeah, baby, impeach! It has never worked before--so what? We'd never had a government as corrupt and incompetent as this one either. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures. Impeach, Nancy, impeach!
We HAVE to impeach the pres because it's our responsibility to—not because its a "tactic." We can impeach and should have a long time ago. We can indict too!
Let's impeach the president for hijackin'
Our religion and usin' it to get elected
Neil Young
If Cheney gets impeahced, watch Bush (with Gonzales in tow) find some obscure point of law, that no one else in the nation is aware of, or has been aware of for 231 years, that allows him to pardon the President of the Senate/Executive Officer (depending on which day it is, and what's happening), hitherto unheard of, fourth branch of the government.
Besides, I want to see those shit eating grins wiped off the Bush-clan's faces. And, it's the right thing to do, for now, and the future. (Do you have children? What kind of America do you want them to live in???)
why is it that whenever this administration is criticized/accused of a misdeed, they and their defenders' defense is to point a finger at someone else in the past-- preferably a democrat, and even more preferably, bill clinton-- and say they did it too? a precedent of one wrong makes another somehow okay?
Of course, I've always been in favour of a more "final solution" (for both), but that would be advocating violence, so I won't talk about it.
IMPEACH
INDICT
IMPRISON
If some of the so called political know it alls still insist that impeachment wont work, will throw the country in turmoil ( like its not already) etc,, then CENSOR the president! Make it so his every move must be with a parental permission slip.
Enough is Enough Folks really. Folks on my side of the globe are asking me,, ´´why isint the new congress doing anything´´
My answer to them,, ´´ because they dont care, its all about making sure one of em can make 32 million dollars for 2008 president campain´´
Oh and Hello C&L folks too and Happy 4th of july .
seems to me he should be treated as a traitor-- and once convicted . . .
impeach or indict or both, they have to go, before they do any more damage. There is ample evidence to justify impeachment proceedings, but even justice pales as a motivation next to the question of what will happen if they are allowed to pursue their current agendas. For example, Cheney has seriously been maneuvering in such a manner as to suggest that he may just bomb Iran all by himself if he can see a clear way to pull it off. And Bush needs to go because he's weak, and easily led astray by dramatic ideas, and lacks a grounded idea of consequences or ramifications of various decisions. This, plus the fact that he has bombed before, give him definite serial bomber potential.
Actually, Bush can pardon Cheney if he gets impeached. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon when he became president. Nixon had the option to pardon Agnew which he didn't. Not sure that Cheney can return to the position of Vice President once he has been impeached, even if he is pardoned. Need someone that knows the law to answer that question.
Cheney is becoming a real liability to the GOP. Republicans will have a difficult time retaining the White House in 2008. Boy Bush made sure of that with his famous Sadim touch. There are 21 Republican Senate seats up for re-election in 2008. Cheney and boy Bush's behaviors and decisions have to be starting to weigh heavily on the minds of these Senate Republicans.
Top 10 Reasons To Impeach Bush?
10. Give Laura Bush some chance at a normal life.
9. Leads to impeachment of VP Cheney.
8. Gives the Hague at least one new case to try.
7. Brings relief to the soldiers and national guardsmen/women in Iraq.
6. Saves more Iraqis from needless slaughter.
5. Keeps the French (and the rest of the world) from laughing so much at Americans.
4. Makes Karl Rove and other Neo-Cons have difficulty sleeping at night, since accountability could be contagious.
3. Restoring Habeas Corpus -- question -- can the President be tried without this right?
2. Hello, Constitutional Law -- nice to have you home again!
&
1. President Pelosi!!!!!!!
*grinning*
Miss A.
Throw them in jail, all of them: Cheney, Bush, Gonzales, Libby, Rove... then throw away the key!
Reason to impeach number #11:
To give Nancy Pelosi something productive to do in response to Bush/Cheney's high crimes and misdemeanors besides blinking excessively everytime the Bush-Cheney gang commits another act of treason against the United States.
Reason to impeach #12:
Because its the 4th of July and the patriotic thing to do!
According to Bill Maher, the problem with the Republicans is that they have no brains, and the trouble with the Democrats is that they have no balls. The Republicans impeached Clinton for NOTHING. Basically, just because they could. The Democrats will NEVER impeach Bush, or even vote on it because they don't have the gonads. Unfortulately, Holtzman writing a "How to Impeach a President: For Dummies" manual won't help. The mechanisms to impeach Bush are ample, and the grounds to do so are MORE than ample, but the Democrats won't even let it come to a vote. The best they can do is start a whisper campaign to REMIND everybody that Dennis Kucinich is actually a Democrat, and not a Libertarian.
Miss A: I used to think Laura Bush was an innocent little wooden librarian. Now I think she's grooving on every bit of this and need to be "taken care of" too. (Whatever that means; let your imaginations fly free.) And Bab's, the matriarch, is a bull dyke (sorry lesbians) in pearls, she's one mean B#tch (sanctimonious too, let's ot forget; a big phony.)
I'm really getting my ya-ya's out today. Thanks for the forum John.
Reasons to impeach Cheney first.
1. He is (even) less popular.
2. Doing Bush first could put Cheney (even briefly) in office.
3. It will make Dems less vulnerable to charges of paralyzing the gov't with a show.
4. Once the veil of secrecy is torn, the flood of evidence will be overwhelming.
5. He is the real source of evil, the enabler of Bush's banality.
6. Once Cheney goes down, everyone will see the marionette sag and stop moving.
Ted Sorenson had a generally wonderful acceptance speech for the next Democractic candidate. But it included a sentence about not pursuing the people responsible for the present disaster. Because we want to bring together and are confident of history's judgment. I hate that patrician shit, the gentlemanly refusal to respond when people are cutting you with knives. These gangsters have cut the country and they need to pay for their crimes.
Enough is so much more then enough already it's not even funny!!!
The best reasons are in the Declaration of Independence.
http://myfightfordemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-declaration-of-indep...
1. Restore the constitution
2. Stop PNAC and...
3. calm down the military industrial complex and...
4. make the people of the world a bit more relaxed
If the Democrats don't impeach this lying mother fucker - well they'll stay at an all time low in the polls and most likely lose the White House again in 2008! They really don't get it and they may not ever get it. Pussies everyone of them!
Go see sicko - it will show you just how udderly fall down drunk wallowing in the gutter sick this country really is. Happy 4th of July the e-mail said - What is there to be happy about really?
If the Dems won't do their job then Utz will have to do it for us. Just send the White House pretzels. That's our only hope.
And send Cheney some greasy Philadelphia Cheesesteaks. No offense to Philly.
Or better yet send them off together on a hunting trip.
If Shultz/Buffett/Rockefeller/Rothschild's Puppet Congress does not impeach ASAP, then it is on to Plan B:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4210319561759729677
Oh and Pelosi, after the impeachment ya better not pardon or you're next to get impeached.
There are 300 million of us, this is some kind of a joke to think that we are just going to take this crap. Look at the 2 million that marched in Spain when they had a similar situation, well immagine 30 million marching down Pennsylvania Avenue
#1 TREASON, HIGH TREASON, maybe we should use the waterboard on bush and cheany, rove can watch and squirm. Seems like it is ok with the VP.
a. why sink as low as they are!
Hey Hey, Ho Ho, it's time for the president and Cheney to go!
Oh yea. Impeachment is a waste of time. Tell that to all the hundreds of thousands of people who are dead now friend from a war they lied us into. Tell that to THEM.
It is despicable that the Democrats who have the House and Senate and a "president" with a 28% approval rating are too scared (after all it is a coropoate Mafia that is essentially running our government now) or too pathetic to hold thes thugs accountable and in this way, they share complicity in the degradation of our Constitution and civil liberties. They must be blamed as well. This is the fall of the Roman Empire, Take Two and NO one in our government is innocent. NO ONE.
Off topic. I've said it before earlier today on another post, but PLEASE read Glenn Greenwald's new book. It's mind shattering. The truth that he speaks is so obvious.
"It has never worked before–so what? We’d never had a government as corrupt and incompetent as this one either."
It has never worked because it is a fatally flawed method for removal (putting issues before a partisan body, rather than an independent tribunal). The two times it has been used on chief execs were BOTH crimes by the Congress, and unsuccessful as well.
"Actually, Bush can pardon Cheney if he gets impeached...Not sure that Cheney can return to the position of Vice President once he has been impeached, even if he is pardoned."
Conviction by the Senate is not open to Presidential pardon.
"But in the case of executive officers, removal follows automatically upon conviction. The defendant remains liable to criminal prosecution. The President may not in any case use his power of pardon in a case of impeachment, but may, as usual, pardon a defendant in the case of a criminal prosecution." (wikipedia)
The impeachment power is especially unavailable because Speaker Pelosi would be the President Pro Tem afterwards -- an unacceptable partisan shift, and another reason why the Founders' impeachment method doesn't work. For that matter, when they invented this method, there were no political parties as such, and VPs did not run on the same ticket with Ps.
• The main issue is the complicity of Republicans in the Senate.
Put pressure on them; don't bother pressuring Speaker Pelosi or the members of the House Judiciary committee. When 20 R Senators call for impeachment, it becomes possible, but until then it's a method without a result.
And if you put the energy you SHOULD put into pressuring the R into complying with the Constitution into bashing the Dems, then you are working for Rove whether you know it or not.
Reason #1
To STOP the next insane, immoral, evil, illegal, outrageous plan of action they are cooking up!
"In other words, a “Hail Mary” pass might be more than just a football phrase with these guys. Who knows what they have in their playbook for the Final Days."
How about this:
1. A dirty bomb is let off in the Port of Seattle in Sept 2008. (For some reason, Rudy Giuliani seems to know random details about this, which have been slipping out in his campaign speeches.) The city comes to a standstill, and being a major business hub with China and the Asian pacific, the event has a profound effect on the nation's economy.
2. At secret meetings in an underground bunker, Cheney and a few close aides determine that a "catastrophic emergency" has just taken place, and advise George W to issue a statement that the event is a "catastrophic emergency".
3. Presidential National Security Directive 51 is invoked, temporarily suspending the normal function of government, imposing martial law, and giving President Bush absolute authority over the three branches of government for an undetermined period of time, until the nation "recovers" from the "catastrophic emergency".
4. The elections are suspended until an undetermined date, sometime after the "catastrophic emergency" state is lifted. Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton are participants in the secret White House meetings that make these determinations, and they urge the public to agree with the White House for the duration of the "emergency".
5. George W Bush becomes President for an undetermined period of time into the future.
6. A secret "task force" of "experts" (all appointed by Dick Cheney) arrives at the conclusion that the Iranians, colluding with Al Qaeda, are the perpetrators of the dirty bomb attack.
7. The President, as Commander in Chief, orders an invasion of Iran.
8. The SAME troops who have done repeated, extended combat tours in Iraq are now sent to Iran.
9. The Iranians are nuked by American forces, and the American forces secure a corridor stretching across Iran to the Caspian Sea.
10. Americans "liberate" Tehran and set up a transitional government of Pro-American Iranian exiles.
11. A huge contingent of Blackwater mercenaries is deployed in Tehran to "keep the peace". Looting is rampant, and Tehran is sacked. Construction of a new permanent American Embassy complex is started by bringing in Filipino laborers to work in near-slave conditions and be paid about $1 a day, which they owe back to the contractors that brought them to Iran.
12. Halliburton wins an exclusive contract to locate and extract oil from the Caspian sea fields, and given the exclusive, no-bid contract to develop and maintain a pipeline back across Iran into Iraq to deliver crude to the big Four Oil Companies, who all have protected service agreements concerning the profits from the Iraqi and Caspian Sea Oil. There is no US oversight of Halliburton because it is now a Dubai company, not an American Company, and so Halliburton owes no US taxes on any of its activities and is exempt from all US labor, safety, and environmental regulations. Halliburton undertakes the work with the protection of the heavily armed American Military, and Blackwater security forces.
13. It is decided that due to the extended War on Terror, it is not safe to return to the normal Constitutional procedures of government, for an undetermined period of time.
14. Due to the sensitive nature of the job of President and Vice President, it is determined by Cheney's task force that elections for those positions will be indefinitely suspended, and and that if the President or Vice President should be rendered incapable of executing their duties due to illness or death, the next acting President and/or VP will be appointed by the task force, not elected.
Hail Mary, indeed.
Save this and let's see how much of it is actually attempted by the White House as Nov 2008 approaches.
I had enough along time ago!
But this is Sparta !
As an infantry combat veteran of WWII, I believe President Bush should be impeached for his criminal misuse of the Constitutional powers conferred on him as commander-in chief of the armed forces. His preemptive invasion of Iraq, which he justified with outright lies to the American people, is reason enough for his removal from office.
Yogi-one joins in the FEAR-MONGERING.
I get that paranoids need to amp the fear in order to drive the hysteria, but it is NOT helpful.
The sky is falling. Never mind that the villains have lost 99% of their political power. ANYTHING is possible, so be sure to panic and spread panic.
impeach Bush ... but it is not necessary nor appropriate to degrade lesbians and call their child a bastard, Democrats are kinder and more considerate than to make those types of remarks..........I lost interest in the email and the writer lost credibility with me.........why lower yourself to a level lower than Bush?
I second Marsha's comment,
and I regard yogi-one's comment as something to bear in mind.
Check out the Directives at whitehouse.gov - NSPD 51HSPD-20.
I especially like this contained wording: .."As a result of the asymmetric threat environment, adequate warning of potential emergencies that could pose a significant risk to the homeland might not be available, and therefore all continuity planning shall be based on the assumption that no such warning will be received.".. One could say that at any time Bush wants, he's the Man-in-Charge based on the inevitable probability that there will be a "catastrophic emergency".
And I assume he'd "take charge" if impeachment was started. "Emergency!"
Then, "The Secretary of Homeland Security shall coordinate the integration of Federal "continuity plans" and "operations" with State, local, territorial, and tribal governments, and private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure,.."
What's also "scary" about this "Plan" is that this administration doesn't have a good track record with "planning", unless one wants to entertain that "all is going as planned". Now that IS scary, since there is not much concession that the train is off the track coming from some mouthpieces in the admin, but that's the nature of the process as we were told on Sept. 11, 2001.
"Things will change daily." "The first casualty of war is the truth."
"Etc."
Impeachment can be time consuming. How do you expedite the process? This administration has invested time and money to get their show on the road, and they will not go quietly into the sunset. Impeachment? Probably be a small hurdle for these guys along the purposed roadmap to global "democracy".
We face unwinnable urban religious guerilla warfare in Iraq and impeachment won't slow them down much. Iran will. Try this one: http://www.exile.ru/2007-May-04/war_nerd.html
We need outrage against religious hate.
Outrage against planet trashing.
Outrage against waste.
Outrage against war.
And if Bush is responsible for perpetuating wasteful wars with actions deemed "criminal", then go for it; but be aware of what yogi-one says, and don't slack off with the outrage against planet trashing waste and war which is perpetuated by tribal and religiously irrational worldviews. The beat will go one even after Bush is impeached if we don't get our heads in the right place, and that place is not in any ancient text spewing fear, guilt and war. It's not in any plan to hog the planet's resources. We have to be an exemplary culture to succeed in making all of mankind civilized and healthy. War is pretty counter-productive. Self-defense is the only reason for going down that ugly road, but we have chosen the entrance ramp regardless of reason.
Quote by the War Nerd: "Tribal hate is the only real perpetual motion machine that works." Impeach Bush if you can, but there's a huge job ahead for every rational human, and it doesn't involve pray, opinion, and "lip service". Inform, instruct, act.
Put down your gods and greed; there's real work to be done.
"Check out the Directives at whitehouse.gov - NSPD 51HSPD-20."
MEANINGLESS.
They don't have the political power to act on those wetdreams, which they published just to make people like you hop through your suspenders.
Democrats are almost as guilty as the Republicans they need to grow a pair and do the right thing. Lets have a march or drive to Washington in mass let them know we are not going to take this crap from them anymore. I believe 2008 is going to be a turning point for middle America. If we don't do something to take back the power from corporate America. We are going to pay for it severely.We are going to be a country of have and havenots Anybody who believes democrats are that much better were either born in a cabbage patch or have oldtimers disease corporate money follows whoever is power. If you really give a crap we need to get on the streets and scare the hell out of them. DAMN THAT FELT GOOD.Thank you very much for letting me get that out LETS GO!!!!
Login or Register to post comments.