imprisonbush.com

This week, the National Lawyers Guild has passed a resolution calling upon Congress to begin the process of impeaching both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The move opposes the move by the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives to try to kill a resolution of impeachment against Dick Cheney, and calls upon the House and Senate to move quickly to protect American democracy by removing Bush and Cheney from the White House.

The NLG impeachment reads as follows:

The Resolution on Impeachment of Bush and Cheney

Whereas George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney:

1. deliberately misled the nation and doctored intelligence, as described in the Downing Street
minutes, http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/memos.html about the threat from Iraq in order to
justify a war of aggression and an occupation of Iraq, as further described in House resolution H.
Res. 333 http://kucinich.house.gov/UploadedFiles/int3.pdf
and as listed in House Resolution H. Res. 635
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr109-635

2. committed crimes against peace by initiating war against Iraq in violation of the UN Charter
http://www.worldpress.org/specials/iraq/;

3. committed crimes against humanity in their conduct of the occupation of Iraq in which they
killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and created millions of
refugees http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1892888,00.html and http://edition.cnn.com/2
006/WORLD/meast/10/13/iraq.main/index.html;

4. killed over 3700 American soldiers and severely wounded nearly 30,000 more in the pursuit of
an illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of Iraq. While Bush and Cheney have stated no
truthful noble cause for the war, one of the central purposes appears to be to take control of Iraq’s
immense oil reserves to financially benefit private corporate interests. See Bush’s benchmark
listing fact sheet released the same day Bush announced the “surge” that expressly called on the
Iraq parliament to “enact hydrocarbons law to promote investment . . . ”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070110-
3.html and http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/56672/;

5. committed further crimes against peace by threatening Iran in violation of the UN Charter, as
described in House resolution H. Res. 333 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/query/z?c110:H.RES.333: and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6649053.stm;

6. detained thousands of prisoners without charges and without providing the ability to confront
their accusers at a fair trial http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Americas/United-States-of-
America;

7. condoned the torture of prisoners in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the US anti-torture
statute of 1994, the US War Crimes Act of 1996, and the oath of
office http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/24/usint8614.htm and
http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Americas/United-States-of-America and
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/24/bush_shuns_patriot_act_requirement/.
Bush’s refusal to faithfully execute the laws prohibiting torture and his declaration on February 7,
2002 that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to prisoners in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo
set the stage for torture there http://hrw.org/reports/2004/usa0604/2.htm. The Rumsfeld approved
Guantanamo torture techniques were then imported to Iraq in August 2003, where the
International Committee of the Red Cross found “systemic” mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in
several facilities and where the Schlesinger Report confirmed in August 2004 that abuses were
“widespread” and “serious both in number and in effect,” and that there is both “institutional and
personal responsibility at higher levels;”

8. approved at least two different illegal electronic surveillance programs of American citizens
without a warrant in violation of the fourth amendment and in violation of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, and repeatedly lied to the American people by stating that
no surveillance was taking place without a court order. The first program includes intercepting
phone and email conversations without warrants and was exposed by the NY Times on December
16, 2005 http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/CPC/NYT_15cnd-program.html. After that program
was exposed Bush said the program was carefully targeted to just include international calls and
suspected members of Al Qaeda. Then, the second program was exposed by USA Today on May
11, 2006. It provides a wholesale attack on the fourth amendment by recording call identification
information of tens of millions of purely domestic calls as well as international calls
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm;

9. attacked basic human rights protections in the constitution including habeas corpus, fifth
amendment freedom from loss of life, liberty and property without due process of law, eighth
amendment freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, and fourth amendment freedom from
unreasonable search and seizure;

10. attacked the separation of powers in an effort to consolidate power in the executive;

11. attacked the messenger who revealed that Bush “twisted” intelligence “to exaggerate the Iraqi
threat.” Just as Nixon retaliated against former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg, according to papers filed in court by special
prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in April 2006, there was “concerted action” by “multiple people in
the White House” to “discredit, punish or seek revenge against” former Ambassador Joseph
Wilson for his July 6, 2003 NY Times op ed piece
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/opinion/06WILS.html?ex=1372824000&en=6c6aeb1ce960
dec0&ei=5007 that ripped the cover off of Bush’s false assertions in his 2003 state of the union
address that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Africa for building a nuclear bomb. In
retaliation, and to silence other would-be critics, the White House collected information about
Wilson and disclosed to reporters that his wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert agent in the CIA
counterinsurgency division, putting her life, and the lives of her contacts, at risk in violation of a
US law protecting intelligence personnel (The Impeachment of George W. Bush, by Elizabeth
Holtzman);

12. as the sole person under the Federal Stafford Act with responsibility and authority to issue
emergency orders to mobilize the military and any federal resources needed to aid and assist in a
disaster (see Failure of Initiative, February 2006 report of the House Select Bipartisan
Committee to investigate the Preparations for and the Response to Hurricane Katrina
http://katrina.house.gov/), Bush failed to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, violated
the public trust, and demonstrated reckless and inexcusable indifference to human life before,
during and after Hurricane Katrina. Bush knew but did not act until too late, and then he lied
about it on national TV. Footage and transcripts from briefings Aug. 25-31 demonstrate that
Bush was personally told well in advance of the “unprecedented strength” of the hurricane, the
“devastating damage expected,” and that “water shortages will make human suffering
incredible,” according to highly accurate predictions by the National Weather Service. The
Associated Press reported that “in dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster
officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck
that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans’ Superdome and overwhelm
rescuers, according to confidential video footage,” http://www.truthout.org/cgi-
bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/47/18079. Yet Bush failed to muster resources to evacuate residents in
advance and failed to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina hit. Then three days
later Bush told Good Morning America, “I don’t think that anybody anticipated a breach of the
levees.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030202130.html In years before the storm
Bush demonstrated inexcusable criminal negligence and violated the public trust by cutting the
budget for hurricane defense, though the high probability of the breaching of the levees and the
enormous risk to human life from a major hurricane hitting New Orleans were predicted and well
known for years before the hurricane hit
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/index.html;

13. failed to take care that the laws be faithfully executed by issuing signing statements
that claim the authority to disobey laws based on the president’s own interpretation of their
constitutionality, and then by taking action in violation of these laws, including the US law
making torture a crime, laws regarding Congressional oversight that require providing
information to Congress, laws regarding domestic spying, laws regarding civil liberties, and laws
strengthening whistle blower protection, thereby expanding the president’s own power by
stepping into the legislative and judicial functions at the expense of Congress and the
courts, upsetting the balance among the three branches of government, and moving us away from
the rule of law toward vastly increased executive
power; http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_l
aws/ and
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/24/bush_shuns_patriot_act_requirement/;

14. converted the Justice Department into an arm of the Republican Party by firing meritorious
federal prosecutors who refused to base decisions on whom to prosecute on political
considerations–to help Republicans win election, an offense James Madison discussed in a
speech to the Senate on June 17, 1789, in which Madison said, “The danger then consists merely in
this, the president can displace from office a man whose merits require that he should be continued in it.
What will be the motives which the president can feel for such abuse of his power, and the restraints that
operate to prevent it? In the first place, he will be impeachable by this house, before the senate, for such
an act of mal-administration; for I contend that the wanton removal of meritorious officers would subject
him to impeachment and removal from his own high
trust.” http://www.gwu.edu/~ffcp/mep/displaydoc.cfm?docid=fc11904
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/27/113/print/;

15. condoned criminal conduct and obstructed justice by commuting the sentence of convicted
perjurer Scooter Libby to keep him silent and to demonstrate that Bush and Cheney will not
allow high officials in the administration to be held accountable for their criminal acts;

16. obstructed congressional investigations of these and other acts by the administration by
defying subpoenas from Senate and House committees seeking documents and testimony under
oath by administration officials and former administration officials; and

Whereas the constitution requires the president to take the following oath of office: “I do
solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and
will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States;”
and

Whereas the constitution provides that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully
executed;” and

Whereas the constitution mandates that “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;” and

Whereas impeachment was so important to our founding fathers that it is mentioned six times in
five different sections of the constitution; and

Whereas George Mason, a primary author of the Constitution, said that impeachment was the
single most important part of the entire document. “Shall any man be above Justice? Above all
shall that man be above it who can commit the most extensive injustice?”
http://gunstonhall.org/georgemason/constitution.html July 20, 1787; and

Whereas “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” is a term of art that means a serious abuse of power,
whether or not it is also a crime, that endangers our constitutional system of government, or an
abuse of public trust. (See Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment: Report of the House
Judiciary Committee, 1974, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/watergatedoc_3.htm, articles by Elizabeth Holzman who
served on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings of Richard Nixon in
1974 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060130/holtzman; and
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070212&s=holtzman, and the book, The
Impeachment of George W. Bush, by Elizabeth Holtzman)

Whereas each of the above listed acts meets or exceeds that standard; and

Whereas impeachment is the only constitutional method to protect Americans from a president
intent on abusing power, violating the constitution, violating the laws, and breaching public trust;
and

Whereas Bush and Cheney threaten further crimes, including launching a war of aggression
against Iran, and whereas sufficient time remains in their term of office for them to commit those
crimes so allowing either or both of them to remain in office for that remaining time will
facilitate these crimes, and whereas pretexts for attacking Iran have been issued, as described by
a former CIA Middle East field officer and current Time Magazine columnist
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1654188,00.html; and

Whereas failing to hold Bush and Cheney accountable not only condones their crimes but
facilitates a future president committing similar or greater crimes; and

Whereas members of Congress swear an oath to “support and defend the constitution of the
United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and no part of this oath permits
exception for partisan advantage, the next election, political expediency, whether it is distracting
from other issues, or how much time they have left in office; and

Whereas failure by Congress to initiate the one remedy–impeachment–provided by our
founding fathers to protect the constitution from such serious abuses has put that constitution, the
rule of law, civil liberties, our democratic form of government, the separation of powers, the
lives of our men and women in uniform, and the lives of countless civilians at severe risk; and

Whereas citizen pressure led the Vermont State Senate and 87 cities and towns around the
nation to pass impeachment resolutions; and

Whereas a poll conducted by http://www.americanresearchgroup.com on July 5, 2007 found that
54% of American adults want the US House of Representatives to begin impeachment
proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney while only 40% oppose, and whereas the poll
also found that 45% are in favor of the same thing for President George W. Bush while 46%
oppose; and

Whereas in view Congress’ ongoing complicity with the war, the torture, the lies, the warrantless
wiretapping, and the imprisonment without trial, and its failure to protect rights and civil
liberties, it is up to the people themselves to defend the constitution and our civil liberties by
building larger grassroots movements, including a movement for impeachment;

Therefore be it resolved that the National Lawyers Guild calls upon the U.S. House of
Representatives to immediately initiate impeachment proceedings, to investigate the charges, and
if the investigation supports the charges, to vote to impeach George W. Bush and Richard B.
Cheney as provided in the Constitution of the United States of America; and

Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild will establish an NLG Impeachment
Committee open to all members to coordinate action by the NLG in support of impeachment, to
work with national and grassroots impeachment organizations, and to provide legal assistance for
those efforts to strengthen the national campaign for impeachment; and

Be it further resolved that the NLG Impeachment Committee will help organize and coordinate
events at the local, state, and national level to build public participation in the campaign to
initiate impeachment investigation, impeachment, and removal of Bush and Cheney from office
without further delay; and

Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild calls on NLG members to ask their
respective member of Congress to support H. Res. 333 to impeach Cheney and to introduce or
support other impeachment resolutions; and

Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild calls on all other state and national bar
associations, state and local government bodies, community organizations, labor unions, and all
other citizen associations to adopt similar resolutions and to use all their resources to build the
campaign demanding that Congress initiate impeachment investigation, impeach, and remove
Bush and Cheney from office without further delay; and

Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild will forward a copy of this resolution to
the Speaker and the Clerk of the US House of Representatives, to Representative John Conyers,
Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to the various state and federal bar associations, to
other peace and justice organizations, and to the news media.

Implementation: By the NLG Impeachment Committee established by this resolution, by
interested local chapters, and by national officers.

Submitted by: James Marc Leas, jolly39@juno.com

The resolution cosponsors are:
Audrey Bomse, Marjorie Cohn, Laura Safer Espinoza, John Wheat Gibson , Eileen Hansen, Larry Hildes, Jim Klimaski, Jordan Kushner, Jim Lafferty, James Marc Leas, Kerry McLean, Bill Monning, Dorinda Moreno, Michael Ratner, Susan Scott, Jennifer Van Bergen, Aaron Varhola, Karen Weill

I ran across a kind of cynical (Sin Nickel) article written yesterday, about a short protest in favor of impeachment a few weeks ago. The protest consisted of unfurling a banner at a baseball game of the San Francisco Giants, in the hope of getting the banner shown on television, along with all the other advertisements.

I think the writer was onto something. What does it say about the state of our collective identity when the best way to get a message out to a large audience is with a banner at a ball game? The American people are too busy sitting, flacid, in their arm chairs, staring at the broadcast stage, to be active upon the public stage.

Those of us who support the impeachment of George W. Bush are pretty serious-minded. We believe in things like the rule of law, and the importance of liberty as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

The trouble is, we don’t live in a serious nation. I like Harry Potter books and all, but there’s something very wrong about Harry Potter books and movies getting more attention than the serious books and documentaries that have been produced about the war crimes being committed by the American government.

We can protest all we want, but if America prefers to think of Twinkies, we’re not going to get very far.

The latest in the growing list of communities calling for investigations into impeachable offenses by George W. Bush: Tompkins County, New York and the county’s major city, Ithaca. The Tompkins County legislature and the Ithaca Common Council have both passed resolutions encouraging their representatives in Congress to open up investigations into the illegal activities of the Bush Administration.

Note to Nancy Pelosi: Impeachment is back on the table. It’s the people’s table, after all, not yours.

Tomorrow is National Impeachment Day, with rallies in big cities and small towns all across America in favor of the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. To find out more information about the Impeachment Day activities near you, visit A28.

This occasion brings to mind the difference between the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and the impeachment movement against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The impeach Clinton move was small, shallow and short lived, driven from the top by Republicans in Congress. The impeach Bush movement, on the other hand, is huge, deep and long-lived. It’s a genuine grassroots movement which has been largely ignored and rejected by Democrats in Congress.

The move to impeach Clinton was a power grab by Washington D.C. politicians. The movement to impeach Bush is an attempt by the people to counter the power of Washington D.C. politicians.

Earlier, I reported that the village of Trumansburg, in the Upstate Finger Lakes region of New York State, is considering passing a resolution encouraging the investigation and impeachment of United States President George W. Bush. Well, it turns out that I did not tell the whole story.

It seems that the entire county (and people from surrounding regions as well) is working to pass impeachment resolutions. The resolutions that ask Congress to investigate and impeach Bush start at the village level, as with Trumansburg, but are also being presented for passage to town boards, and finally to the Tompkins County Legislature, just one step below the New York State Assembly and Senate, which could in turn present a petition for impeachment to the timid Democratic Congress.

The organization Back To Democracy is sponsoring much of these efforts. Thanks to them.

It’s a funny thing, how close the words peace and impeach are to each other. The two were certainly close to each other the other day in Ithaca, New York, when hundreds of people from surrounding towns marched into town demanding an end to the Iraq War and signing petitions for impeachment.

We’re certainly not going to get an end to the war until George W. Bush is out of office. No matter how tough the Democrats in Congress talk, they don’t seem willing to take the tough action necessary to end the war or to get Bush out of office before the natural time of his expiration.

Well, Congress isn’t everything. All across America, communities like Ithaca are doing what Congress will not, coming together to try to put things right.

Last week, the idea of a local resolution in support of the impeachment of President George W. Bush was introduced at a meeting at which village residents listened to three candidates who are running for election to the Trumansburg Board of Trustees. A few days later, Allen Carstensen issued a draft resolution in favor of impeachment on a Trumansburg blog.

The impeachment resolution Mr. Carstensen suggested is reproduced below. If it passes, Trumansburg, a small village in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, would become one in a growing number of local communities making formal statements in favor of impeachment.

Will the state legislatures listen? Will the Democrats in Congress listen? Stay tuned.

—————-

Village of Trumansburg

Resolution to Impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney

WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired with others to defraud the United States of America by intentionally misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 371; and

WHEREAS, George W. Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805; and

WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of the “Federal Torture Act” Title 18 United States Code, Section 113C, the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution are part of the “supreme Law of the Land”; and

WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney acted to strip American citizens of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention without access to legal counsel, without charge and without the opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the President of a U.S. citizen as an “enemy combatant”, all in subversion of law; and

WHEREAS, In all of this George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have acted in a manner contrary to their trust as President and Vice President, subversive of constitutional government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of Trumansburg and of the United States of America; and

WHEREAS, Petitions from the country at large may be presented by the Speaker of the House according to Clause 3 of House Rule XII;

Be it resolved that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, warrant impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States;

Be it resolved further by the Village of Trumansburg , That our senators and representatives in the United States Congress be, and they are hereby, requested to cause to be instituted in the Congress of the United States proper proceedings for the investigation of the activities of the George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, to the end that they may be impeached and removed from such office.

Be it resolved further, That the Clerk of the Village of Trumansburg be, and is hereby, instructed to certify to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, under the seal of the Village of Trumansburg, a copy of this resolution and its adoption by the Village of Trumansburg, as a petition, and request that this petition be delivered to the Office of the Clerk and entered in the United States Congressional Journal. The copies shall be marked with the word “Petition” at the top of the document and contain the original authorizing signature of the Village Clerk.

Be it resolved further, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the our New York State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, and that we hereby request that she initiate a similar resolution in the New York State Assembly.

Someone under the name freesouljah has come up with a collective project on YouTube to gather reasons to Impeach Bush. How to participate: Produce a short video message saying why you think George W. Bush should be impeached. There are already many responses. Add yours.