ThinkingBlue: It's Time To NO, It's Way Passed the Time For Impeachment.

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It is time, NO, it is way passed the time to NOT ONLY think about IMPEACHMENT BUT TO START SETTING THE WHEELS IN MOTION towards IMPEACHING our elected (Not
me, I didn't elect them) top officials for HIGH
WAR CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. Also
Bush should be indicted for illegal wiretapping, misuse of the CIA, perjury, bribery, obstruction of justice, and other abuses of executive power. "In all of this," the Articles of Impeachment summarize, "Richard M. Nixon, OOPS, I mean George W. Bush (as Yogi Berra once said "This is like deja vu all over again." but worse) has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States." Please scroll down to see,"THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY".

Justice should and WILL BE SERVED. Thank you, thinkingblue

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Articles of Impeachment Of

George W. Bush, President of the United States,
Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States and Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense of the United States

Communicating our values

When confronted with the truth, duck and cover!
A Colorado high school geography teacher, Jay Bennish, was suspended with pay after making controversial comments about President Bush. Among his comments, which were recorded by a good young Nazi and provided to a local radio-station/noise-machine-outlet along with a complaint, were: "Who is probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth?" Bennish asked his class. "The United States of America."

He went even further, comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler.

"I'm not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same, obviously they're not," Bennish said. "But there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use."

Bennish told the class he was only expressing his opinions.

Us? Americans? Violent? Just because we spend more on the instruments of war than the next six nations combined? Just because, on an average day in America, 13 children commit a murder? Just because we kill each other at the rate of forty a day? Don't be ridiculous!

Bush like Hitler?

"See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - George W. Bush

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the
State.” - Joseph Goebbels
Kevin Shaw's blog Submitted by Kevin Shaw on March 3, 2006 - 3:22pm.

(go to bottom of page here)

The Case for Impeachment

Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush

Impeach tr.v. impeached, impeaching,impeaches. 1.a. To make an accusation against. b. To charge (a public official) with improper conduct in office before a proper tribunal.

Please John Conyers: Impeach Bush NOW
by Bob Fertik

http://www.democrats.com/please-john-conyers

On Thursday, Harper's Magazine held a truly outstanding forum on impeaching George Bush with Sam Seder, Rep. John Conyers, John Dean, Liz Holtzman, Lewis Lapham, and Michael Ratner (photo by Kate Anne).

Everyone agreed Bush should be impeached, the important question was when.

During Q&A, I asked John Conyers if he would introduce Articles of Impeachment now. He replied, "My goodness, please look at H.Res. 635, which calls for an nvestigation that could lead to impeachment. But I cannot call for impeachment now, before we have investigated all the facts."

My time was up, so I could not continue the debate. But if I could, these are the arguments I would make for the immediate introduction of Articles of Impeachment.
First, the Articles of Impeachment have been written. You can find them in Michael Ratner's brand new book. We don't need a committee to struggle for months over the wording; Conyers and his allies can simply "throw the book" at Bush.

Second, when House Republicans impeached President Clinton in 1998, they emphasized ad nauseum that "impeachment" is merely the equivalent of an indictment, the determination that there is sufficient evidence to charge a suspect with a crime. Impeachment, like an indictment, leads to a trial, in which a jury (in this case the Senate) determines whether the evidence is sufficient for conviction. The evidence we have in hand (as presented in Michael Ratner's book, as well as John Conyers' thorough report on the Iraq War lies,

The Constitution in Crisis) is far more than is needed for an indictment. There is absolutely no reason for Conyers' proposed Select Committee to do the work of the Senate in weighing the evidence.

Third, Bush's criminal activity is ongoing and must be stopped. Our occupation of Iraq has already cost 2,300 American lives and at least 28,636 Iraqi lives, if not well over 100,000. We are ommitting war crimes by torturing and murdering prisoners, using chemical weapons and depleted uranium, and pushing Iraq to the brink of civil war. Bush is still
wiretapping countless Americans without a warrant, in direct violation of the FISA law. And even though Bush's crimes are flagrant and obscene, the Republican Congress refuses to either investigate them or stop them.

Finally, as the panelists made clear, the American people are truly in a state of despair that George Bush is able to commit these unspeakable crimes without any effort to hold him accountable. By introducing real Articles of mpeachment - even if only a few Members do so - those Members will make a powerful statement that they are determined to challenge that despair and demand
accountability. That act of leadership, in and of itself, would galvanize the
52% of Americans (when last measured in January, long before Dubai and the Katrina tapes) who support impeachment. And it would most likely persuade even more Americans that Bush's impeachment was both necessary and urgent. So if 55% or 60% or even 65% of Americans supported impeachment, republicans in Congress would have a very difficult time standing in the way - especially as they faced a disastrous election in November.

After four distinguished decades in Congress, John Conyers is not a man who acts rashly. But all of us who have watched Bush shred the Constitution know that Conyers has tried to stop him every step of the way by sending urgent letters, filing Freedom of Information requests, and proposing Resolutions of Inquiry. Through those diligent efforts, Conyers has laid the most solid groundwork possible for impeachment.

So please John Conyers, I honestly beg you to introduce Articles of Impeachment now.

Action items:

1. Send this article with a few words of your own to campaign@johnconyers.com

2. Urge your Representative and Senators to support Impeachment:

http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=8329176

3. C-Span taped this outstanding forum but it does not appear on C-Span's schedule for Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Email viewer@c-span.org and urge them to broadcast it.

4. The New York Times is one block from Town Hall, yet it did not even mention
this historic event. Email Executive Editor Bill Keller executive-editor@nytimes.com and Public Editor Byron Calame public@nytimes.com and demand to know why.

5. Link to this article from your favorite blogs and ask the blog owner to join ImpeachPAC's Citizens Impeachment Commission.

6. Register to join in local protests:
http://www.democrats.com/user/register

7. Read the whole protest plan:http://www.democrats.com/cd

8. Organize your congressional district:
http://pdamerica.org/orgs/cdpp-form.php

9. Support our efforts by contributing to ImpeachPAC.

Thank you for your tireless efforts to save American Democracy!

______________

UPCOMING EVENTS TO END THE WAR AND HOLD WARMAKERS ACCOUNTABLE

4th Annual Party for Progressives!

Activist San Diego presents: We say NO to War! We Support Peace & Justice for All!

Special Guest: CINDY SHEEHAN

Sat March 4, 8 -11pm

Balboa Park Club Ballroom, San Diego, CA

Dancing to award winning dance band LIQUID BLUE

To purchase tickets: 619-528-8383 or

www.ActivistSanDiego.org

Scott Ritter and Gore Vidal in LA

U.S. Tour of Duty's Real Intelligence Project, Los Angeles City Beat, and Progressive Talk AM 1150 present an emergency public discussion about Iraq, Iran and America's constitutional crisis with Former UN Weapons Inspector SCOTT RITTER and GORE VIDAL March 4, 4 - 5:30 p.m.
Immanuel Presbyterian Church
3300 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles
Doors open 3 p.m.
http://www.ustourofduty.org

IRAQI & U.S. WOMEN SAY NO TO WAR!

March 5 - 6 Events in NY
March 7 - 9 Events in DC
Tuesday 7 March 7-9 PM
Foundry United Methodist Church
Meet the Delegation:

Gold Star Mothers Cindy Sheehan and Elaine Johnson

Eman Khammas, Nadje Al-Ali, Faiza Al-Araji and Others

Medea Benjamin, Ann Wright and Others...

Music by In Process, Holly Near and more…

1500 16th Street NW DC (16th & P) Dupont Circle Metro, #30 bus - Suggested donation $10.00

March/Rally to Deliver Women's Peace Plan with 100,000 signatures
Wednesday 8 March NOON (sign and forward the petition at
http://womensaynotowar.org) start at Iraqi Embassy and finish at the White House NOON meet: 1801 P streets, NW - Dupont Circle Metro

Iraqi Women's Briefing and Q&A for Congress
Thursday 9 March 11 AM
Sponsored by Out of Iraq Caucus (Room TBD)
For more Info about the Iraqi delegation and additional events:

http://womensaynotowar.org or call Allison at 202 487 5112 or email
dc@codepinkalert.org

A Short History of Impeachment
High crimes and misdemeanors
by Borgna Brunner

The right to impeach public officials is secured by the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Sections 2 and 3, which discuss the procedure, and in Article II, Section 4, which indicates the grounds for impeachment: "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."

Ticket of admission to the U.S. Senate galleries for the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson Source:The Granger Collection

Removing an official from office requires two steps: (1) a formal accusation, or impeachment, by the House of Representatives, and (2) a trial and conviction by the Senate. Impeachment requires a majority vote of the House; conviction is more difficult, requiring a two-thirds vote by the Senate. The vice president presides over the Senate proceedings in the case of all officials except the president, whose trial is presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. This is because the vice president can hardly be considered a disinterested party—if his or her boss is forced out of office he or she is next in line for the top job!

What Are "High Crimes and Misdemeanors?"

Bribery, perjury, and treason are among the least ambiguous reasons meriting impeachment, but the ocean of wrongdoing encompassed by the Constitution's stipulation of "high crimes and misdemeanors" is vast. Abuse of power and serious misconduct in office fit this category, but one act that is definitely not grounds for impeachment is partisan discord. Several impeachment cases have confused political animosity with genuine crimes. Since Congress, the vortex of partisanship, is responsible for indicting, trying, and convicting public officials, it
is necessary for the legislative branch to temporarily cast aside its factional nature and adopt a judicial role.

The Infamous Sixteen

Since 1797 the House of Representatives has impeached sixteen federal officials. These include two presidents, a cabinet member, a senator, a justice of the Supreme Court, and eleven federal judges. Of those, the Senate has convicted and removed seven, all of them judges. Not included in this list are the office holders who have resigned rather than face impeachment, most notably,
President Richard M. Nixon.

The Small Fry

The first official impeached in this country was Senator William Blount of Tennessee for a plot to help the British seize Louisiana and Florida from Spain in 1797. The Senate dismissed the charges on Jan. 14, 1799, determining that it had no jurisdiction over its own members. The Senate and the House do, however, have the right to discipline their members, and the Senate expelled Blount the day after his impeachment.

Judge John Pickering of New Hampshire was the first impeached official actually convicted. He was found guilty of drunkenness and unlawful rulings, on March 12, 1804, and was believed to have been insane.

Associate Justice Samuel Chase, a strong Federalist, was impeached but acquitted of judicial bias against anti-Federalists. The acquittal on March 1, 1805, established that political differences were not grounds for impeachment.

Other officials impeached were implicated in bribery, cheating on income
tax, perjury, and treason.

The Big Fish
Two U.S. presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth chief executive, and William J. Clinton, the forty-second.

Johnson, a Southern Democrat who became president after Lincoln's assassination, supported a mild policy of Reconstruction after the Civil War. The Radical Republicans in Congress were furious at his leniency toward ex-Confederates and obvious lack of concern for ex-slaves, demonstrated by his veto of civil rights bills and opposition to the

Fourteenth Amendment. To protect Radical Republicans in Johnson's administration and diminish the strength of the president, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, which prohibited the president from dismissing office holders without the Senate's approval. A defiant Johnson tested the constitutionality of the Act by attempting to oust Secretary of War Edwin M.
Stanton. His violation of the Act became the basis for impeachment in 1868. But the Senate was one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict, and Johnson was acquitted May 26, 1868.

RELATED LINKS

Presidential Factfile

Inaugural Factfile
The Cabinet of George W. Bush

Inaugural Oratory

Presidential Inaugural Addresses

Presidential Inaugural Addresses: Length and Date of Speech

How is a President Nominated and Elected

Senator Charles Sumner, witness to the proceedings, defined them as "political in character." Historians today generally agree with his assessment and consider the grounds for Johnson's impeachment flimsy—the Tenure of Office Act was partially repealed in 1887,and then declared unconstitutional in 1926.

Bill Clinton was ultimately dragged down—though not defeated—by the character issues brought into question even before his election. An investigation into some suspect real estate dealings in which Clinton was involved prior to his presidency failed to turn up any implicating evidence. However, Independent Counsel
Kenneth Starr managed to unravel a tangled web of alleged sexual advances and affairs in Clinton's past. The trail led to former White House intern
Monica S.Lewinsky. After months of denials, including in a videotaped legal testimony, Clinton admitted in August of 1998 that he had had a sexual relationship with the young woman during the time of her internship.

The infamous "Starr Report" outlining the findings of the
Independent Counsel's investigation was delivered to the House of Representatives on Sept. 9, 1998, and subsequently made available to the public. Many felt the report, filled with lurid details of Clinton's sexual encounters with Lewinsky, to be a political attack
against the President rather than a legal justification for his impeachment. Of the 11 possible grounds for impeachment cited by Starr, four were eventually approved by the House Judiciary Committee:
grand jury perjury, civil suit perjury, obstruction of justice, and abuse of power.

On December 19, following much debate over the constitutionality of the proceedings and whether or not Clinton could be punished by censure rather than impeachment, the House of Representatives held its
historic vote. Clinton was impeached on two counts, grand jury perjury (228–206) and obstruction of justice (221–212), with the votes split along party lines. The Senate Republicans, however, were unable to gather enough support to achieve the two-thirds majority required for his conviction. On Feb. 12, 1999, the Senate acquitted President Clinton on both counts. The perjury charge failed by a vote of 55–45, with 10 Republicans voting against impeachment along with all 45
Democrats. The obstruction of justice vote was 50–50, with 5 Republicans breaking ranks to vote against impeachment.

The One That Got Away CLICK HERE TO GO TO PRESS FOR PROGRESS.COM

Of thirty-five attempts at impeachment, only nine have come to trial. Because it cripples Congress with a lengthy trial, impeachment is infrequent. Many officials, seeing the writing on the wall, resign rather than face the ignominy of a public trial.

The most famous of these cases is of course that of President Richard Nixon, a Republican. After five men hired by Nixon's reelection committee were caught burglarizing Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate Complex on June 17, 1972, President Nixon's subsequent behavior—his cover-up of the burglary and refusal to turn over evidence—led the House Judiciary Committee to issue three articles of impeachment on July 30, 1974. The document also indicted
Nixon for illegal wiretapping, misuse of the CIA, perjury, bribery, obstruction of justice, and other abuses of executive power. "In all of this," the Articles of Impeachment summarize, "Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States." Impeachment appeared inevitable, and Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. The Articles of Impeachment, which can be viewed at

http://watergate.info/, leave no doubt that these charges qualify as "high crimes and misdemeanors," justifying impeachment.

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CLICK HERE IF YOU NEED TO CALL THE FUNNY FARM
YOU CAN BEAM ME UP NOW, SCOTTIE. Thinkingblue
REMEMBERING BILLIE CARR:Clinton made the mistake of inviting her to the White House in the middle of the "Lewinsky " deal. Here it is, a big reception line, everyone duded up, all these important folks around, and Billie came though that line, looked the president of the United States in eye and said, low and hard, "You dumb son of a bitch."

Which is, of course, what every Democrat in America wanted to say to Clinton at the time. Such a tragedy there was no one there to write down the rest of the ass-chewing, but we do know that Clinton started laughing and said, "Billie, I knew you were gonna do that." Which proves he wasn't all dumb.

THINKINGBLUE.ORG
CAROLYNCONNECTION.COM Warning very Graphic REAL PICTURES OF WAR