It's Just Plame Impeachable
-
davidswansonWant to meet our members? Click 'Join' above!
By David Swanson
Not everybody agrees on every detail of Constitutional interpretation, but James Madison and George Mason have opinions that ought to carry a little weight, since they wrote the thing. And they both thought impeachment would be applicable if a president were ever to pardon someone for a crime that he himself had something to do with.
So, along comes President Allhat Nocattle, who commutes the sentence (and will surely later pardon the crime) of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the crime of obstruction of justice. Libby was, of course, obstructing an investigation into a crime that evidence shows us involved the Vice President and the President directly. Libby was Chief of Staff to the Vice President.
This would be impeachable, were Bush not directly implicated. The drafters of the Constitution created a single executive in order to hold him accountable for the entire executive branch. When Bush promised to fire anyone in the White House who was involved in leaking the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame, he was simply doing his job. When he then refused to fire those involved, he was betraying his oath of office.
Of course, as Scott McClellan has been pointing out on television, Bush would have had to fire himself if he were firing everyone involved in the leak, since he authorized it. But we already knew this from Cheney's handwritten notes exhibited at Libby's trial.
Then there's the little matter of treason. The leaking of Plame's identity, exposing an entire network of supposedly valuable spies working to counter the proliferation of nuclear weapons is not just any random crime. It's treason. An impeachment hearing is just the beginning of what would be not only appropriate but required by the oath of office taken by every member of Congress.
Last Monday evening, Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced the following article of impeachment along with 34 others:
Article XIV
MISPRISION OF A FELONY, MISUSE AND EXPOSURE OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION AND OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE IN THE MATTER OF VALERIE PLAME WILSON, CLANDESTINE AGENT OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed", has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, together with the Vice President,
(1) suppressed material information;
(2) selectively declassified information for the improper purposes of retaliating against a whistleblower and presenting a misleading picture of the alleged threat from Iraq;
(3) facilitated the exposure of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson who had theretofore been employed as a covert CIA operative;
(4) failed to investigate the improper leaks of classified information from within his administration;
(5) failed to cooperate with an investigation into possible federal violations resulting from this activity; and
(6) finally, entirely undermined the prosecution by commuting the sentence of Lewis Libby citing false and insubstantial grounds, all in an effort to prevent Congress and the citizens of the United States from discovering the deceitful nature of the President's claimed justifications for the invasion of Iraq.
In facilitating this exposure of classified information and the subsequent cover-up, in all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.
*********
Here's some further reading:
Murray Waas, Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic, National Journal, July 3, 2006.
Elizabeth de la Vega, Final Jeopardy, TomDispatch.com, April 9, 2006.
Letter from Representative Henry Waxman to then White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, July 14, 2005.
Letter from Representative Henry Waxman to White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, March 16, 2007.
Letter from Representative Henry Waxman to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, December 3, 2007.
Jon Ponder, Did Bush Lie to Federal Investigators in the CIA Leak Case? Pensito Review, November 21, 2007.
Scott McClellan, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, 2008.
- davidswanson's blog
- |
- Login or register to post comments
- |
-
- |
Top Actions
-
23,210 of 30,000
-
42,758 of 60,000
-
94,686 of 100,000
Comments
Impeach bush with the USA Patriot Act
Sentiment will not bring about impeachment; only an indictment with the most horrible crimes that shock and awe America will bring this administration down. Impeachment is the great American Shakespearean drama, and America is only in a position to play this drama out on T.V.. So let’s play ball.
An indictment that grabs the attention of Americans and grabs the short hairs of Congress is the only indictment that will not be ignored.
Kucinich is being ignored.
Americans would be absolutely fascinated and entertained by the trial of bush and cheney using articles of impeachment based solely upon felony violations of the USA Patriot Act. Imagine the wealth of FOX television consultant contractors hired to pontificate on USA Patriot Act theory, imagine the ratings. Imagine the discovery powers a Judge would have under the USA Patriot Act, imagine. bush imagined, and look what it got him. It is your law and it is the only law that will terminate this un-American administration. bush and his gang are literally pressing the Adz into your trembling hands, daring you, teasing you, playing you.
Tens of millions of dollars have been spent by the 'media' at large in conjunction with government propaganda offices to sell the war and the USA Patriot Act to Americans. This law shines, radiates an energy that when cast upon the accused paints them instantly and forever as horribly and terribly un-American. This is a directed political weapon and it must be focused on those who have committed felony violations of the USA Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act is a new political weapon and the people must coop the strategy of Misaprion of a Felony within the scope of the felony provisions of the USA Patriot Act.
It would have been a huge news story if Kucinich charged bush and cheney with felony violation of the USA Patriot Act; I mean that would be HUGE. bush and cheney would be absolutely terrified, stammering their responses through the limbags. Blogs would fume, tongues would lather, ivory towers would crash down and the dust would cover all of the media with a conspiratorial cloak stinking of un-Americanism. Yes, I 'ism' and ‘eason them in the same breath. The soldier who wins the war walks off to battle merrily for he knows he will return the same.
When the roaches scurry, they leave tracks, and of course that's all part of the hard-hitting prosecutorial strategy of using the USA Patriot Act to defend this nation from terrorism and those that aid and abet terrorism by disseminating false information on terrorism, a serious and egregious felony violation of the USA Patriot Act.
If Kucinich would have simply indicted bush with articles that were fortified with the prosecutorial tools and discovery tools included within the felony provisions of the USA Patriot Act he would have effectively tarred and feathered bush. bush's lawyers could then only attack the USA Patriot Act itself in order to destroy its power in the courts. America loves irony, a wild story, gotta love da' juice baby. The vast majority has no interest in the Constitution or the law, unless it’s some hot babe on a police show poining a gun at a dude and shooting him. Ratings talk.
Kucinich has no ratings.
If you are going to bring down a warring tyrant then you will have to throw him to some very real lions. The lions in the USA Patriot Act make Kucinich's application of old, tired laws, (that are being ignored also), a real disappointment. Kucinich needs some help with his presentation. He puts everybody to sleep.
- WAKE UP AMERICA ! -
Do you really want to drool yourself to sleep over 4 hours of droning old law stuff that has failed so often already, or do you want to see bush accused of un-American and illegal activities, felony violations of the USA Patriot Act ... or does everybody want to pretend the USA Patriot Act like, doesn't exist? New, new and improved impeachment brought to you by the felony prosecutorial provisions of the USA Patriot Act. How long would it take them to talk if their cellmate was in a secret prison in Egypt?
Whatever ... right?
Prosecuting by making use of the felony provisions within the USA Patriot Act will bring bush down like a chain saw clears brush. The lawyers will be forced to attack the USA Patriot Act law and its extensions, they will have to attack the theory of the USA Patriot Act and dismember and destroy the USA Patriot Act and associated legislation in order to save their hides.
And they would be branded as un-American for all time. They would hold up their executive orders signed by bush to shield him from the very laws he made to keep you in check, and then you would start to connect the dots. Then you would connect the dots.
It really is in plain sight.
Focus on real felonies, not emotional or bandwagon appeals and you will get your man.
The glittering generalities of crime, banging on pots and pans will not indict or impeach. Congress is complicit in all of this, and some of them must also be charged with felony violation of the USA Patriot Act.
Terrify them, please; they have terrified you with it all. Fight back with felony prosecution using the felony provisions of the USA Patriot Act and its extended legislations.
Why did Kucinich take up 4 hours of the Congress's...
time to read this articles of impeachment? Why did the Repugs take an additional 4 hours to re-read the entire thing?
Most importantly of all, why did Kucinich and Wexler vote against this bill going to the Congress, as did all the other Dems and certainly the Repugs?
What game is our little clown playing?
A mind once expanded can never return to its original dimensions.
Anne Hathaway: 1556-1623
The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so.