The Murder for Oil Continues in Iraq 61/
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of You Who
Value Peace and Remember
the Meaning of Christmas/For the Love of GOD
I
M
P
E
A
C
H
BUSH
12-25-05
As part of a year end summary let's focus on the "I" word
Impeach George W. Bush
Articles of Impeachment
of
President George W. Bush
and
Vice President Richard B. Cheney,
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and
Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez
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. - - ARTICLE II,
SECTION 4 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of
Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez have
committed violations and subversions of the Constitution of the United
States of America in an attempt to carry out with impunity crimes against
peace and humanity and war crimes and deprivations of the civil rights of
the people of the United States and other nations, by assuming powers of
an imperial executive unaccountable to law and usurping powers of the
Congress, the Judiciary and those reserved to the people of the United
States, by the following acts:
1) Seizing power to wage wars of aggression in defiance of the U.S.
Constitution, the U.N. Charter and the rule of law; carrying out a massive
assault on and occupation of Iraq, a country that was not threatening the
United States, resulting in the death and maiming of tens of thousands of
Iraqis, and hundreds of U.S. G.I.s.
2) Lying to the people of the U.S., to Congress, and to the U.N.,
providing false and deceptive rationales for war.
3) Authorizing, ordering and condoning direct attacks on civilians,
civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties were
unavoidable.
4) Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently
changing its government by force and assaulting Iraq in a war of
aggression.
5) Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions,
kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals, torture
and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners to obtain false
statements concerning acts and intentions of governments and individuals
and violating within the United States, and by authorizing U.S. forces and
agents elsewhere, the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth,
Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United
States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
6) Making, ordering and condoning false statements and propaganda about
the conduct of foreign governments and individuals and acts by U.S.
government personnel; manipulating the media and foreign governments with
false information; concealing information vital to public discussion and
informed judgment concerning acts, intentions and possession, or efforts
to obtain weapons of mass destruction in order to falsely create a climate
of fear and destroy opposition to U.S. wars of aggression and first strike
attacks.
7) Violations and subversions of the Charter of the United Nations and
international law, both a part of the "Supreme Law of the land" under
Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, in an attempt to commit with
impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes in wars and
threats of aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and others and usurping
powers of the United Nations and the peoples of its nations by bribery,
coercion and other corrupt acts and by rejecting treaties, committing
treaty violations, and frustrating compliance with treaties in order to
destroy any means by which international law and institutions can prevent,
affect, or adjudicate the exercise of U.S. military and economic power
against the international community.
8) Acting to strip United States citizens of their constitutional and
human rights, ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to
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 Executive of a citizen as an "enemy
combatant."
9) Ordering indefinite detention of non-citizens in the United States and
elsewhere, and without charge, at the discretionary designation of the
Attorney General or the Secretary of Defense.
10) Ordering and authorizing the Attorney General to override judicial
orders of release of detainees under INS jurisdiction, even where the
judicial officer after full hearing determines a detainee is wrongfully
held by the government.
11) Authorizing secret military tribunals and summary execution of persons
who are not citizens who are designated solely at the discretion of the
Executive who acts as indicting official, prosecutor and as the only
avenue of appellate relief.
12) Refusing to provide public disclosure of the identities and locations
of persons who have been arrested, detained and imprisoned by the U.S.
government in the United States, including in response to Congressional
inquiry.
13) Use of secret arrests of persons within the United States and
elsewhere and denial of the right to public trials.
14) Authorizing the monitoring of confidential attorney-client privileged
communications by the government, even in the absence of a court order and
even where an incarcerated person has not been charged with a crime.
15) Ordering and authorizing the seizure of assets of persons in the
United States, prior to hearing or trial, for lawful or innocent
association with any entity that at the discretionary designation of the
Executive has been deemed "terrorist."
16) Institutionalization of racial and religious profiling and
authorization of domestic spying by federal law enforcement on persons
based on their engagement in noncriminal religious and political activity.
17) Refusal to provide information and records necessary and appropriate
for the constitutional right of legislative oversight of executive
functions.
18) Rejecting treaties protective of peace and human rights and abrogation
of the obligations of the United States under, and withdrawal from,
international treaties and obligations without consent of the legislative
branch, and including termination of the ABM treaty between the United
States and Russia, and rescission of the authorizing signature from the
Treaty of Rome which served as the basis for the International Criminal
Court.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
AND OTHER NAMED OFFICIALS OF THE UNITED STATES HAVE COMMITTED IMPEACHABLE
OFFENSES OF UNPRECEDENTED DANGER TO THE CONSTITUTION AND PEOPLE OF THE
UNITED STATES.
Draft Articles of Impeachment of President George W. Bush and other named
officials of the United States charge the most serious crimes known to law
and history. Nothing in the experience of the impeachment power under the
Constitution compares. The conduct charged threatens the Constitution, the
United Nations, the rule of law and the lives of unknown thousands, or
millions of people by their act and example.
The alleged impeachable acts of President George W. Bush include:
1. Ordering and directing "first strike" war of aggression against
Afghanistan causing thousands of deaths;
2. Removing the government of Afghanistan by force and installing a
government of his choice;
3. Authorizing daily intrusions into Iraqi airspace and aerial attacks
including attacks on alleged defense installations in Iraq which have
killed hundreds of people in time of peace;
4. Authorizing, ordering and condoning attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq on
civilians, civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties are
unavoidable;
5. Threatening the use of nuclear weapons and ordering preparation for
their use;
6. Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently
proclaiming his personal intention to change its government by force;
7. Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions,
murder, kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals,
torture and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners;
8. Authorizing, ordering and condoning violations of rights of individuals
under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eight Amendments to the
Constitution and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other
international protections of human rights;
9. Authorizing, directing and condoning bribery and coercion of
individuals and governments to obtain his war ends;
10. Making, ordering and condoning false statements and propaganda and
concealing information vital to public discussion and informed judgment to
create a climate of fear and hatred and destroy opposition to his war
goals.
President Bush is accused of Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes and Crimes
Against Humanity. No crimes are greater threats to the Constitution of the
United States, the United Nation Charter, the rule of law or the future of
humanity.
MAXIMUM EFFORT TO
SECURE FULL CONSIDERATION OF IMPEACHMENT IS THE DUTY OF EVERYONE.
Impeachment is the means by which We The People of the United States and
our elected representatives in Congress can prevent further crimes by the
President and the human catastrophe they threaten and force accountability
for crimes committed.
Congressional proceedings for impeachment can bring about open, fearless
consideration of the most dangerous acts and threats ever committed by an
American President. If courageously pursued, they can save our
Constitution, the United Nations, the rule of law, the lives of countless
people and leave open the possibility of peace on earth. Each of us must
take a stand on impeachment now, or bear the burden of having failed to
speak in this hour of maximum peril.
- - Ramsey Clark
January 15, 2003
Movement to impeach
George W. Bush
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The phrase "Movement to impeach George W. Bush" is used in two ways. It is used to describe actions by individuals and groups within the public and private spheres intended to support an impeachment of US President George W. Bush. The phrase is also used in a more broad sense to refer to a social movement, related to public opinion polls, including both Democrats and Republicans, which indicate a degree of public support for a Presidential impeachment.
Reasons given for impeachment include: the Plame affair, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the global war on terror, the Downing Street documents, the yellowcake forgery, the 2001 terrorist incidents known as "9/11" for September 11, 2001, the mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and authorization to conduct domestic wiretaps without a warrant. These reasons have been championed by activists on the political left and groups affiliated or supportive of anti-war causes. Some conservatives also have called for Bush's ouster on many of the same grounds.
There are no impeachment hearings nor is an impeachment vote scheduled.
Ramsey Clark, United States Attorney General under Lyndon Johnson, has set up a website, VoteToImpeach.org, in which he lists some of the reasons he believes Bush, as well as Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, should be impeached.
Impeach George W. Bush
December 22, 2005
Ex-Clinton official Schmidt's defense of warrantless wiretaps rife with
inaccuracy, empty arguments, and unwarranted credulity
In defense of his argument, however, Schmidt falsely claimed that Jamie
Gorelick, as deputy attorney general under Clinton, testified that the
president has the authority to "go beyond" the terms of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Schmidt also offered a number of
empty and irrelevant arguments in defense of Bush.
December 22, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Nuclear Monitoring of
Muslim Americans Done Without Search Warrants
In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11
has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at
over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including
mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least
five other cities, U.S. News has learned.
December 23, 2005
Power We Didn't Grant
As Senate majority leader at the time, I helped negotiate that law with
the White House counsel's office over two harried days. I can state
categorically that the subject of warrantless wiretaps of American
citizens never came up. I did not and never would have supported giving
authority to the president for such wiretaps. I am also confident that the
98 senators who voted in favor of authorization of force against al Qaeda
did not believe that they were also voting for warrantless domestic
surveillance.
December 22, 2005
A Time to Impeach
But Bush had plenty of bipartisan help from Democratic co-conspirators in
keeping knowledge of this illegal spying from reaching the American
public. It began in November 2001, in the wake of 9/11, and -- from the
very first briefing for Congressional leaders by Dick Cheney until today
-- Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees were told
about it. Those witting and complicit in hiding the crime included
Democratic Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, former chairman and later
ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi, former ranking member on the House Intelligence
Committee. They knew it was a crime -- Rockefeller, for example, warned
the administration against it -- and yet did not make it public. They were
frightened by polls showing security hysteria at its height.
December 22, 2005
2005: The year of vanished credibility
Start with Bush. Never at ease before the cameras, he now has the hunted
blink and compulsive nasolabial twitch of the mad dictator, a cornered rat
with nowhere left to run. Nixon looked the same in his last White House
days, and so did Hitler, according to those present in the Fuhrerbunker.
As Hitler did before him, Bush raves on about imagined victories.
December 21, 2005
ACLU Letter Requesting the Appointment of Outside Special Counsel
Due to the severe constitutional crisis created by these actions, it is
essential that such a counsel be appointed immediately. Such crimes are
serious felonies and they need to be fully and independently investigated.
December 23, 2005
Congress said no on war powers: Daschle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress rejected the Bush
administration's request for war-making authority in talks on a resolution
passed after the September 11, 2001, attacks, former Senate Majority
leader Tom Daschle said in Friday's edition of The Washington Post.
December 23, 2005
Deceit over spying -- prelude to long-term lame-duck president
The president's evasion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was
bad enough, but in his statement to the public, his blatant omission of
the fact that the act gave him the emergency power for wiretaps may have
done incalculable damage to the dwindling faith of Americans in their
government, a loss of faith that could be seriously detrimental to the
president's goals during the remaining three years of his term of office.
December 21, 2005
Wiretap case called throwback to Nixon
While careful not to criticize the president, U.S. Appeals Court Judge
Damon Keith said he thought the case bearing his name and unanimously
upheld by the Supreme Court had put an end to eavesdropping without a
warrant.
December 23, 2005
Alito Said Attorneys General Can't Be Sued for Illegal Wiretaps
Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito wrote in a
1984 memo that U.S. attorneys general should be immune from being sued for
ordering illegal wiretaps.
December 22, 2005
Gonzales, general lay out defense for spying
Responding to bipartisan concern about possible abuse of presidential
power, the White House laid out a two-pronged argument Monday that
President Bush has legal and constitutional authority to order electronic
surveillance on domestic targets without court permission.
December 22, 2005
Wiretap Furor Widens Republican Divide
On one side is the national-security camp, made even more numerous by
loyalty to a wartime president. On the other are the small-government
civil libertarians who have long held a privileged place within the
Republican Party but whose ranks have ebbed since the 2001 terrorist
attacks.
December 20, 2005
Hagel seeks hearings on domestic spying
Allegations of potential abuse by the Bush administration involving
domestic spying is a "very serious issue," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.,
Wednesday.
December 22, 2005
'Impeachment' Talk, Pro and Con, Appears in Media at Last
A smattering of polls (some commissioned by partisan groups) has found
considerable, if often qualified, support for impeachment. But Frank
Newport, the director of the Gallup Poll, told E&P recently that he would
only run a poll on the subject if the idea really started to gain
mainstream political traction, and not until then. He noted that he had
been besieged with emails calling for such a survey, but felt that was a
"well-organized" action.
December 21, 2005
Spying, the Constitution — and the 'I-word'
They will respond by calling him Nixon 2.0 and have already hauled forth
no less an authority than John Dean to testify to the president's
dictatorial perfidy. The "I-word" is out there, and, I predict, you are
going to hear more of it next year — much more.
December 21, 2005
Censure and Impeachment
If we succeed in censuring Bush and/or Cheney, impeachment is next. The
one does not cancel the other. The public will not allow it to. Censure
will not satisfy those demands. It will, however, help move Congress and
the media in the direction of listening to the public demand for
accountability.
December 22, 2005
Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program
The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government
surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified
briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the
legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, according to several
intelligence and government sources.
December 23, 2005
The return of Democratic clout
"Republicans worked very hard and gambled on being able to basically
intimidate the Democrats on the Patriot Act and the ANWR provision in the
Defense appropriations bill, and it didn't work," says Thomas Mann, senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution.
December 22, 2005
Courts unlikely to hear wiretap cases
The reason: The surveillance is so secret that its targets are unlikely to
know they were wiretapped and thus are unlikely to raise a court
challenge. That leaves the legal underpinnings of the program to be
debated in Senate hearings expected to begin in early 2006.
December 20, 2005
Scott McClellan Lied: Congress had no oversight over illegal wiretaps
Q But as you know, members of Congress who were briefed said that they were informed -- yes, briefed, but given absolutely no recourse to formally object, to push back and say, this is not acceptable.
MR. McCLELLAN: They're an independent branch of government.
December 21, 2005
Must Read
Conservative Court Questions Administration's Honesty
The fourteen-page opinion makes a number of charges against the
Administration. Fundamentally, it accuses the government of changing its
version of the facts to suit its purposes and improperly seeking to avoid
Supreme Court consideration of whether the President has the power to
declare a U.S. citizen an "enemy combatant." The Court also castigates the
government for at least creating the appearance that there really was not
such a great need to hold Padilla as an enemy combatant and that the
charges that he had entered the country to set off bombs might not be
true.
December 20, 2005
Democrats say they never OK'd wiretapping
WASHINGTON - Some Democrats say they never approved a domestic wiretapping
program, undermining suggestions by President Bush and his senior advisers
that the plan was fully vetted in a series of congressional briefings.
December 26, 2005 Edition
Why Times Ran Wiretap Story
But Times sources said that Mr. Risen's book does include the revelation
about the secret N.S.A. surveillance program. That left Mr. Taubman and
his superiors in the position of having to resolve The Times' dispute with
the administration before Mr. Risen could moot their legal and ethical
concerns—and scoop his own paper.
December 19, 2005
George W. Bush's Impeachable Offenses
The articles of Nixon's impeachment centered on his use of illegal
surveillance methods against political opponents and obstruction of
justice and contempt of Congress in covering it up.
Blog Pluse July 06 - December 15
Number of blog posts for "Impeach Bush" over the past six
months
December 21, 2005
Two-to-one majority opposes violation of civil rights in fight against
terrorism'
A recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds 65% of Americans saying
that while the government should make efforts to fight terrorism, it
should not take steps that violate basic civil liberties. On the other
hand, 31% would allow the government to take counter-terrorism steps to
prevent terrorism, "even if that means your basic civil liberties would be
violated."
December 20, 2005
O'Reilly retreats in "war on Christmas," declaring: " 'Happy Holidays'
is fine'
Summary: On The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly apparently reversed
his previous position that the phrase "Happy Holidays" is offensive,
stating, " 'Happy Holidays' is fine, just don't ban 'Merry Christmas.' "
O'Reilly has previously claimed the term "Happy Holidays" is offensive to
"millions of Christians" and 'insulting to Christian America."
December 19, 2005
Wash. Post Impeachment Question
In her November 13 column, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote
that Post polling director Richard Morin told her that the Post does not
"do a poll on whether President Bush should be impeached" because such a
question "is biased and would produce a misleading result." Media Matters
for America pointed out the inconsistency in Morin's claim: the Post,
under Morin's direction, asked similar questions about then-President Bill
Clinton throughout 1998. Morin has now changed his story, saying that "we
do not ask about impeachment because it is not a serious option or a topic
of considered discussion."
December 20, 2005
Bush is Danger to the Rule of Law
President Bush presents a clear and present danger to the rule of law. He
cannot be trusted to conduct the war against global terrorism with a
decent respect for civil liberties and checks against executive abuses.
Congress should swiftly enact a code that would require Mr. Bush to obtain
legislative consent for every counterterrorism measure that would
materially impair individual freedoms.
December 20, 2005
Peloski Wants Letters Declassified
"When I learned several years ago that the National Security Agency had
been authorized to conduct the activities that President Bush referred to
in his December 17 radio address, I expressed my strong concerns in a
classified letter to the Administration and later verbally."
December 21, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Spy Briefings Failed to Meet Legal Test, Lawmakers Say
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - The limited oral briefings provided by the White
House to a handful of lawmakers about the domestic eavesdropping program
may not have fulfilled a legal requirement under the National Security Act
that calls for such reports to be in written form, Congressional officials
from both parties said on Tuesday.
December 26, 2005 Edition
Bush's Abuse of Power Deserves Impeachment
Recklessly and audaciously, George W. Bush is driving the nation whose
laws he swore to uphold into a constitutional crisis. He has claimed the
powers of a medieval monarch and defied the other two branches of
government to deny him. Eventually, despite his party's monopoly of power,
he may force the nation to choose between his continuing degradation of
basic national values and the terrible remedy of impeachment.
December 21, 2005
Spying Program Snared U.S. Calls
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - A surveillance program approved by President Bush to
conduct eavesdropping without warrants has captured what are purely
domestic communications in some cases, despite a requirement by the White
House that one end of the intercepted conversations take place on foreign
soil, officials say.
December 21, 2005
Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest
A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government
surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret
authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.
Impeach George W. Bush
The Best National,
International, and Alternative News & Opinion
Bush
The Year of Vanished Credibility
ALEXANDER COCKBURN
--CounterPunch
Start with Bush. Never at ease before the cameras, he now has the glassy
stare and mirthless smile of a cornered man with nowhere left to run.
Nixon looked the same in his last White House days, and so did Hitler,
according to those present in the Fuehrerbunker. As Hitler did before him,
Bush raves on about imagined victories. Spare a thought for the First Lady
who has to endure his demented and possibly drunken harangues over supper.
The word around Washington is that he's drinking again. At this rate he'll
be shooting the dog and ordering the First Lady to take poison, which I'm
sure she'll have great pleasure in forwarding to her mother in law.
more...
Saturday December 24, 2005 4:11 PM EST
Bush
Dems Insist U.S. Deserves Better Than Bush
ELISABETH GOODRIDGE
--Yahoo News
WASHINGTON - Americans deserve better leadership than what the Bush
administration offers, South Carolina Rep. James E. Clyburn said Saturday
in the Democrats' weekly radio address.
Clyburn, chairman of the House Democratic Faith Working Group and
chairman-elect of the House Democratic Caucus, said recent legislation
promoted by Republicans has done little to help the lives of many
Americans.
more...
Saturday December 24, 2005 4:10 PM EST
Iraq
New Lies About Iraq
Norman Solomon
--AlterNet
Three days before Christmas, the Bush administration launched a new salvo
of bright spinning lies about the Iraq war.
"In an interview with reporters traveling with him on an Air Force cargo
plane to Baghdad," the Associated Press reported Thursday morning, Donald
Rumsfeld "hinted that a preliminary decision had been made to go below the
138,000 baseline" of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Throughout 2006, until Election Day in early November, this kind of story
will be a frequent media refrain as the Bush regime does whatever it can
to prevent a loss of Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
more...
Saturday December 24, 2005 7:55 AM EST
Justice
Alito's Zeal for Presidential Power
Editorial
--New York Times
With the Bush administration claiming sweeping and often legally baseless
authority to detain and spy on people, judges play a crucial role in
underscoring the limits of presidential power. When the Senate begins
hearings next month on Judge Samuel Alito, President Bush's Supreme Court
nominee, it should explore whether he understands where the Constitution
sets those limits. New documents released yesterday provide more evidence
that Judge Alito has a skewed view of the allocation of power among the
three branches - skewed in favor of presidential power.
more...
Saturday December 24, 2005 7:21 AM EST
Environment
Saving the North Pole
--Capital Times
Talk about a "war on Christmas"!
The mad rush of the Bush administration and its allies in Congress to
drill for oil beneath the coastal tundra of the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge threatened to put big rigs on the edge give or take more than a
thousand miles of the North Pole. And it looked for a few days this week
as if the Senate might finally give in to the pressure.
more...
Saturday December 24, 2005 7:48 AM EST
Justice
Double rebuke for Bush as judges attack terror moves
Suzanne Goldenberg
--Guardian
President George Bush faced a rare challenge from the judiciary yesterday
when two courts questioned the legality of his expansion of presidential
powers in the war on terror.
In a startling rebuke, a federal appeals court refused to allow the
transfer of a terror suspect, Jose Padilla, from military to civilian
custody and strongly suggested that the Bush administration was trying to
manipulate the judicial system.
more...
War
Iraq war: A Crime against Peace
--Islam Online
The United States violated international rules governing the use of force.
Those rules, enshrined in the UN charter, limit the use of force to
self-defense in case of an armed attack or military actions authorized by
the Security Council to maintain or restore international peace and
security.
According to an editorial on CounterPunch.org, the U.S.’s war on IRAQ
is a Crime against Peace as defined by the Nuremberg Charter (1945), the
Nuremberg Judgment (1946), and the Nuremberg Principles (1950) as well as
by paragraph 498 of the U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956).