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Plenty of opportunities to impeach Bush

The United States of America has undergone three impeachment proceedings. In 1868, President Andrew Johnson was impeached because he removed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from his position, which was a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. He was not convicted, and Kansas Senator Edmond G. Ross, who cast the vote that saved the president, is profiled in John F. Kennedy's Profiles In Courage. In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon was impeached because of the Watergate break-iin coverup, but he resigned from office before the proceedings could go forth. And in 1998-99, President Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about an affair he had with an intern. Clinton, of course, was not convicted.

In each case, impeachment proceedings were begun because of the perception that the president had violated a law. Patiot Daily points out that Congress may ratify Bush's illegal spying with new FISA legislation so that his actions will be deemed legal and he cannot be impeached for having committed them.

Patriot Daily goes on to say, however, that during the month of March alone, Bush violated enough other laws to make impeachment proceedings possible. The writer of the Patriot Daily piece says that, "to avoid writing a book," it was necessary to omit any violations of law committed before March 1, 2006, violations of humanitarian laws and negligence, and some of the prior laws to which there had not been additional information added.

With these restrictions in mind, here are just a few of the March violations:

Bush signed the spending bill, knowing that violated a Constitutional requirement that the bill must first pass in both chambers.

He violated the material witness law by using it as preventive detention authority who could commit terrorist acts some day but for whom there is no cause for criminal charges.

He violated the Clean Air Act by by loosening emission standards for aging coal-fired power plants. The Clean Air Act makes it clear that only Congress may make such a decision.

In a legal brief written for the U.S. Supreme Court, Bush cited evidence from a debate by two Republican senators. There was no such debate. The evidence was manufactured by the White House.

Bush defined "material support" for terrorists in such a distorted fashion that victims of terrorists wound up being defined as terrorists.

He approved the ports deal, knowing that Dubai's boycott of Israel was illegal under U.S. law.

He failed to hand over delinquent mining company safety violation fees to the Department of the Treasury, as required by law. (He also decreased major fines, and did not collect any in half of the caes.)

He violated the law when he secured the UAE ports deal without the required national security review.

Bush's nuclear deal with India violates U.S. and international nuclear nonproliferation laws.

Patriot Daily lists many more violations committed by the Bush adminiistration, as well as relevant links.

Posted by Diane E. Dees on 04/05/06 at 6:40 PM | E-mail | Print | Digg this | de.licio.us



Comments

Good luck.

The current Rethuglican congress will not bring charges, because they value party loyalty more than doing the right thing. If the Demos gain control, they won't go for it either, because they have no stones.

Either way, we lose.

Posted by: Bryan on 04/06/06 at 7:29 AM

I agree with Bryan. The Democrats don't have the courage to impeach Bush. They sold out the country by going along with the Iraq war even though they knew Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. They were afraid of being called unpatriotic. I don't see them going through with impeachment. As for the Republicans, they have the guts to do it, but they'd never betray Bush no matter what he did.

Posted by: Josh Boelter on 04/06/06 at 9:05 AM

Do you have any supporting evidence that

While the story about the faked debate is correct, I have read nothing that supports the view that the WH manufactured the evidence. What are your sources for this--what at face value seems to be--misinformation?

Posted by: grammatophile on 04/06/06 at 9:28 AM

It's there in Patriot Daily. Their source is the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032801685.html

Posted by: Diane on 04/06/06 at 10:37 AM

What's real funny here is that Pres. Bush was never actually elected president!!!

According to the US Commission on Civil Rights report on the 2000 Florida Presidential Election fraud, "Despite the closeness of the election, it was widespread voter disenfranchisement, not the dead-heat contest, that was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election."

Ah yes, and who remembers how Diebold voting machines "accidentally" switched thousands of votes from Gore to Bush in Volusia County, Florida, and how Diebold blamed the incident on a faulty memory chip, and how the critically-timed malfunction led the astute media to switch their predictions to a Bush victory...

Absolutely wonderful darling!, how Diebold's chief executive, Walden O'Dell, is a member of Pres. Bush's elite group of loyalists who raised at least $100,000 for the 2004 race...

I mean so what if, in April 2004, CA banned Diebold electronic voting machines because the company had installed uncertified software and then lied to state officials, while Leon County, Florida, banned Diebold voting machines due to security flaws--an audit proved an undeniable vulnerability to manipulation through elementary hacking.

And does it really mean that much of anything, that a Diebold whistleblower employee stated that the company was aware of security flaws but attempted to silence anyone making an issue of it...

An so what of it, if in the 2004 Presidential Elections, in Franklin County, Ohio, electronic voting machines gave Bush 3,893 extra votes in one precinct alone, while researchers from the John Hopkins University stated, "This voting system is far below even the most minimal security standards ... We show that voters, without any insider privileges can cast unlimited votes without being detected ...," none of these facts means that it's pertinent that Joseph Stalin once opined, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing, those who count the votes decide everything."

So..., it would seem the bottom line is all washed out, where "The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery." Thomas Paine.

Posted by: Michael L. Wagner on 04/06/06 at 12:09 PM

If all the listed violations are in fact true, query whether they meet the constitutional standard for impeachment - "high crimes and misdemeanors". To include items such as signing a bill that had not been properly passed, or acting without authority regarding clean air, etc., in a discussion of impeachment - that's just plain silly.

Posted by: Abe on 04/07/06 at 12:14 PM

according to everything said and done theres is not enough to push an impeachment action against bush.
provided theres was it would have been started long ago.

Posted by: Dr.Q on 04/07/06 at 12:54 PM

If we impeach Bush, don't we then get Cheney? Wouldn't he be worse?

Posted by: Suzanne C on 04/07/06 at 1:08 PM

Why worry about impeaching Bush. Our elected representatives want to centralize power. They have given Bush and company more power to screw the American public than FDR had in his hayday. We the governed have given too much power to those who govern by edict. Don't blame the power hungry politicians in both parties blame yourself for placing them there in the first place. In our "Unending War on Terrorism" the next elected official could become dictator of America so HE/She can protect us from ourselves.

Posted by: Chuck Kidd on 04/07/06 at 2:31 PM

It would be counter productive to throw out the slime ball with the rest of the putrid neocon,jesus freaking, homophobic and hate filled eau d' repunants.

Censure is the way to go.

immobilize and isolate him. Make it so he will not be able to do any more harm to this country or our citizens and no way can he start another premeditated war killing thousands of our young men and women.

Besides, just look at the people in line to take over if he is tossed out.

The whole heirachy in Washington is disgusting and unworthy of office. Do not allow the rest of them to be in power and add more destruction to our lives.

Neuter the idiot and let's all hold our breath for the next 2 plus years. joe ruffo

Posted by: joe ruffo on 04/07/06 at 2:57 PM

Joe is right. (So is Michael...Bush was never elected.) Why would we want to get rid of our punching bag before we utterly shame every last stinking Republican in the land? Do you think the morons with Bush bumperstickers don't know why you're glancing sideways at them in disgust and disbelief? Well...maybe some of them are that oblivious.

Naderites Josh and Bryan can go spend the money Rove gives them to bash Dems on a nice arsenic martini and no one would miss them. Why should the Dems get in the way while the thugs are imploding? Should they be so stupid as to make this about themselves instead of Bush? Already Chris Matthews is predicting that if the Dems gain majorities in November (assuming we get BALLOTS by then) that they will "lynch" the President (sic). We don't need the entire jackal lot of them harping on the Dems...it doesn't take much. Witness their hyperventilating over Cynthia McKinney, an "outrage" manufactured by the thugs AFTER she apologized. Coverage of McKinney dwarfed that of DeLay and the DHS child predators combined.

Let the focus stay squarely on Chimpy. I'm hoping for a public meltdown...I'd even order cable for that.

Posted by: R on 04/07/06 at 3:35 PM

It's quite amazing that anyone would find these revelations anything other than S.O.P.

Remember Ralph Nader... a true American hero. America had it's chance and elected Chimpy McCokespoon instead. The Europeans say it best, "what do you expect when you elect the village idiot to run your country."

Posted by: Ferguson Cadwallader on 04/07/06 at 4:49 PM

Bush is (as yet) an unidicted co-conspirator. If there is any justice in the world, he will eventually be tried, convicted and executed for his crimes against all humanity.

Posted by: Harold Orwell on 04/07/06 at 7:09 PM

If only he got sex in the white house and tried to keep it from Laura....

Posted by: Ricardo on 04/07/06 at 7:20 PM

It's enough to cause voter apathy...but then isn't that what allowed the Republicans to manipulate votes anyway. The real tragedy to all of this is that both elections were close enough to allow the man to steal his way in. After the 2000 debacle 2004 should have been a landslide victory for the opposition regardless of the candidate.

Posted by: jakstrate on 04/08/06 at 10:45 AM

It's true, we can't trust the current Dems. We gotta clean house in 'o6. Hell, I'll vote for the Dixie Chickens (?) if they'll impeach.

Posted by: alex2012 on 04/08/06 at 1:02 PM

Actually, Nixon didn't get impeached -- he resigned just ahead of it, when Sen. Barry Goldwater told him, "Mr. President, if you do not resign, you will be impeached."

This inaccuracy has almost become history, it's been repeated so many times.

Posted by: Mutternich on 04/08/06 at 5:00 PM

You are completely wrong in suggesting that Bush's "deal" with India is impeachable. Such absurd claims lowers Mother Jones's credibility. The deal is merely
proposed. The President has authority to propose any foreign policy deal subject to Congressional ratification or approval. That is what is happening here. Evidently you missed Condi Rice's sales pitch to the Congress the
other day. The administration is now trying to sell the proposed India deal to the Congress of the United States. Whether the Congress will accept or reject the proposed deal, of course, depends on how much the lobbyist for the Indian Government are able to accomplish on the Capitol Hill. But to say that this proposed deal is "impeachable" is spoken in ignorance. Do not get me wrong. I am not supporting the proposed India nuclear deal. It is a move in the wrong direction. However, it certainly does not belong on the otherwise credible list of many possible impeachable offenses of this President.

Posted by: KushK on 04/08/06 at 6:31 PM

The first stage of a £150m investment in regional museums is praised for boosting visitor numbers...

Posted by: Alfredo Asher on 11/27/06 at 9:26 AM

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