December 30th, 2006

Impeachment Proceedings against Bush

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney filed articles of impeachment against President Bush a couple weeks ago. It’s about time a congress(wo)man had the backbone to realize that this dictator has gone way too far.

The following statement was issued by Congresswoman McKinney to sum up her reasoning behind the impeachment initiative:

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
Floor Statement
December 8, 2006

Mr. Speaker:

I come before this body today as a proud American and as a servant of the American people, sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

Throughout my tenure, I’ve always tried to speak the truth. It’s that commitment that brings me here today.

We have a President who has misgoverned and a Congress that has refused to hold him accountable. It is a grave situation and I believe the stakes for our country are high.

No American is above the law, and if we allow a President to violate, at the most basic and fundamental level, the trust of the people and then continue to govern, without a process for holding him accountable—what does that say about our commitment to the truth? To the Constitution? To our democracy?

The trust of the American people has been broken. And a process must be undertaken to repair this trust. This process must begin with honesty and accountability.

Leading up to our invasion of Iraq, the American people supported this Administration’s actions because they believed in our President. They believed he was acting in good faith. They believed that American laws and American values would be respected. That in the weightiness of everything being considered, two values were rock solid—trust and truth.

From mushroom clouds to African yellow cake to aluminum tubes, the American people and this Congress were not presented the facts, but rather were presented a string of untruths, to justify the invasion of Iraq.

President Bush, along with Vice President Cheney and then-National Security Advisor Rice, portrayed to the Congress and to the American people that Iraq represented an imminent threat, culminating with President Bush’s claim that Iraq was six months away from developing a nuclear weapon. Having used false fear to buy consent—the President then took our country to war.

This has grave consequences for the health of our democracy, for our standing with our allies, and most of all, for the lives of our men and women in the military and their families—who have been asked to make sacrifices—including the ultimate sacrifice—to keep us safe.

Just as we expect our leaders to be truthful, we expect them to abide by the law and respect our courts and judges. Here again, the President failed the American people.

When President Bush signed an executive order authorizing unlawful spying on American citizens, he circumvented the courts, the law, and he violated the separation of powers provided by the Constitution. Once the program was revealed, he then tried to hide the scope of his offense from the American people by making contradictory, untrue statements.

President George W. Bush has failed to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States; he has failed to ensure that senior members of his administration do the same; and he has betrayed the trust of the American people.

With a heavy heart and in the deepest spirit of patriotism, I exercise my duty and responsibility to speak truthfully about what is before us. To shy away from this responsibility would be easier. But I have not been one to travel the easy road. I believe in this country, and in the power of our democracy. I feel the steely conviction of one who will not let the country I love descend into shame; for the fabric of our democracy is at stake.

Some will call this a partisan vendetta, others will say this is an unimportant distraction to the plans of the incoming Congress. But this is not about political gamesmanship.

I am not willing to put any political party before my principles.

This, instead, is about beginning the long road back to regaining the high standards of truth and democracy upon which our great country was founded.

Mr. Speaker:

Under the standards set by the United States Constitution, President Bush—along with Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of State Rice—should be subject to the process of impeachment, and I have filed H. Res. 1106 in the House of Representatives.

To my fellow Americans, as I leave this Congress, it is in your hands—to hold your representatives accountable, and to show those with the courage to stand for what is right, that they do not stand alone.

Thank you.

House Resolution 1106 can be tracked here. It’s been referred to the Judiciary Committee where, chances are, it will stall and stagnate. Gotta love our legislative process! As Bush hoards up more and more power into the executive, our legislature bends down to submit to his will and give him a blank check to unlimited power in the name of “spreading freedom” and fighting the “war on terror”. While I disagree with many principles and policies of the Democratic Party, and least we’ll have some sort of checks and balances with a Demo-controlled Congress. Should be interesting…

12 Responses to “Impeachment Proceedings against Bush”

  1. Curtis
    December 30, 2006 at 9:23 pm #

    Way to go Cynthia. She has a heck of a lot more guts than most people in Congress.

  2. Sam Hennis
    December 30, 2006 at 11:08 pm #

    There is a website, http://www.impeachbush.org, which is working toward his impeachment. Check it out. It’s time we get rid of this deceitful dictator

  3. Connor
    December 30, 2006 at 11:38 pm #

    The only downside to impeaching Bush would be the unfortunate promotion of Cheney to the judgment seat, errr, presidency. Cheney’s got a long track record of political punditry that reeks of controversy and conspiracy.

    Should both be impeached, that means that (given the popular interpretation of the succession clause) that Nancy Pelosi (as upcoming speaker of the house) would become President. Ew.

  4. Jeff
    December 30, 2006 at 11:41 pm #

    I imagine that this resolution is just McKinney’s last hurrah before leaving office since she lost her primary and has been replaced. She didn’t have enough clout to get this resolution through anyway. I’d like to see a serious impeachment resolution put forth with co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle, but that won’t happen.

    I wish we lived in a world where politicians still believed in doing the right thing instead of the politically acceptable thing. The only way there will be a serious impeachment resolution is if polls show that the public is behind it. Politicians won’t do anything without checking the polls first.

  5. Jeff
    December 30, 2006 at 11:45 pm #

    Connor,

    I don’t think Bush would go without Cheney. All the crimes that can be attributed to Bush fall on Cheney as well. If there are serious investigations, I actually believe that Cheney would be in more trouble than Bush.

    As for the possibility of a President Pelosi, it’s high time we had a woman president, and she is much, much better than Hillary Clinton. I think that she will be a strong speaker, much stronger than do-nothing Denny Hastert.

  6. Jason
    December 31, 2006 at 12:53 am #

    Connor, you may say this is an ad homminem attack (and I don’t remember where things last ended up with that discussion on BoJ) but not only is she outgoing (and thus this specific resolution will likely end with her term) but she’s also a total whack-job of a Congresswoman. She’s the one that assaulted a capitol hill police officer because he didn’t recognize her and allow her to pass the general public line of people waiting to get into the Capitol building. Then, she wouldn’t even appologize or acknowledge any wrong-doing for quite some time when all her colleagues were saying she’s out of line. This was just one of many ‘out there’ things she’s done. So again, Connor or others may disregard my entire comment, but I say the fact that she alone authored and presented this resolution makes it mean very very very little due to her character, history, (and as previously pointed out) short term remaining (effectively she’s already done).

    Articles referenced: CNN
    CNN

  7. Connor
    December 31, 2006 at 11:44 am #

    Haha! I had no idea she had done any of those things. That’s hilarious. Good thing she was voted out.

    Regardless of her miscreant behavior, I feel she was spot on in filing the impeachment proceedings. Now that Congress is full of donkeys hopefully some will have the valor to see it through.

    Doubtful.

  8. thomas
    December 31, 2006 at 1:51 pm #

    I agree that bush is an absurd president, and that he should be judged as a citizen like any other. You all seem to have forgotten that he is innocent until proven guilty. By the logic presented in many of your responses, we should overthrow out government entirely. His crimes are no less self-serving than the large majority of federally elected politicians. They are all a bunch of lying, cheating thieves who have made a career out of keeping the truth from the American tax-payer. Nancy Pelosi or Cynthia McKinney calling Bush a criminal is a lot like the pot calling the kettle black.

  9. Connor
    December 31, 2006 at 5:28 pm #

    George Bush, like any other person, is only “innocent until proven guilty” with respect to civil punishment. A person committing an unlawful act is guilty, regardless of a jury or judge’s verdict. Despite what a judge may deem as truth, the offender will have to answer before the Judge of us all when the time comes to answer for unpaid crimes.

    Then again, with Bush having signed away Habeas Corpus and preventing “unlawful enemy combatants” the same presumption of innocence, perhaps his judgment should be meted back to him.

  10. Michael L. Mc Kee
    January 1, 2007 at 7:39 pm #

    It is not my desire to come off as a sanctimonious observer of the posts on this site, but I must attempt to instill a little logic, and realism to this topic. While I doubt most of the participants engaged in this conversation are mean spirited, I sincerely hope you will spend more time building up the kingdom through utilizing the Framer’s Constitution as opposed to the constitution referred to by Congresswoman McKinney. She is referring to the Supreme Court’s Constitution which is, by-the-way, the same constitution which President Bush has sworn to uphold. The Framer’s Constitution is the only one which was inspired, and blessed by the Lord of this land who is Jesus Christ. While I will not challenge either President Bush, or Congresswoman McKinney concerning the sincerity of their intentions, I will state emphatically that neither of them have befriended the same constitution which I love, and support. Consequently, they are both cut from the same cloth, and the sooner truely patriotic Americans realize this we may be able to reverse the trend of total destruction of our sacred beginnings. Both of the dominant political parties have been equally guilty of helping to create Statism through judicial fiat for more years than I have been alive, and that is nearly 60. Things political are not going to change any time soon unless we awaken ourselves to the reality that any form of Socialism will only lead to Anarchy, or Tyranny. It is not too late to save ourselves from being relagated to the societal dung heap, but the only way we can emerge victorious is to return to the moral values which inspired our Savior to grant us His protective influence. I sincerely hope we will all be resolute in the coming year in making a more valiant effort to study the scriptures prayerfully, become better aquainted with the true Constitution of the United Staes of America, and serve our respective communities by being actively engaged in seeking out, and promoting those men, and women who are truely striving to lead by example for the benefit of the majority of the American people rather than some grandiose, utopian worldview which is solely inspired by the one who convinced a third of the hosts of Heaven to follow him to their eternal reward devoid of freedom. If you would like a good link to becoming better aquainted with the Framer’s Constitution please avail youselves of the wealth of wisdom, and inspiration which can be found at inspiredconstitution.org. I found closure to many years of being frustrated, and now have a much better arsenal with which to combat the evil combinations which have been assembled by the adversary to destroy the only remaining example of true freedom left upon this fallen sphere. It is time for the Elders of Israel to stand up, and declare allegiance to the author of salvation, and freedom who is Jesus Christ.

  11. Kelly Winterton
    January 1, 2007 at 9:07 pm #

    Michael, I loved your post. I am reading (about half-way through) a new book by BYU prof Jack Monnett PhD entitled Awakening To Our Awful Situation and it is subtitled Warnings From the Nephit Prophets. It is a very well-done book on how the BofM prophets saw our day, and used their own experiences and history in comparing the Secret Combinations which brought down the Jaredite and Nephite nations to our own day, and how they saw in visions that the same Satanic Secret Combinations would exist in our own day. It is up to us to take heed of the BofM prophets council and identify and root out these Secret Combinations so that good people like those in the Church who love the Constitution can be equipped to save it when it is in danger of being destroyed.

    I have no doubt in my own mind that our divinely-inspired Constitution is now in extreme danger from the abuses of the Cheney-led administration, and no matter who tries to expose these abuses, whether McKinney, Pelosi, Connor, myself or my cat, I will support the effort to bring an honest expose’ to the Constitutional abuses and crimes perpetrated by the current administration. Our Constitutional principles demand this justice.

    While we’re at it, I suggest strongly that the 9/11 investigation ought to be re-opened because of so much new evidence that has come to light in the past 2 or 3 years. I believe 100% that such an investigation, if done honestly, would show U.S. government complicity, if not, at least the blatant attempt to cover-up the truth from the American public.

  12. Michael L. Mc Kee
    January 2, 2007 at 4:03 pm #

    Kelly, Connor, and Others

    Please try to understand that any attempt to resolve the problems we face by alligning ourselves with one party or the other will only result in an exercise in futility. The problem lies squarely at the feet of the Supreme Court which has been incrementally tearing away at the fabric of the true Framer’s Constitution for many years.

    Any attempt to impeach President Bush on the grounds intimated by the Floor Statement delivered by Congresswoman McKinney will, in the end, produce nothing more than a distraction from the real agenda being perpetuated by the adversary, and his minions through secret combinations. The majority of the players involved are not even aware they are being duped into believing they are defending the Constitution of the United States of America. Sadly, Congresswoman McKinney like so many other so-called Patriotic Americans has merely been a pawn in the hands of those behind the scenes operatives who are not now, and never have been elected to serve in any capacity as representatives of the American People.

    It is equally important to realize that the people are not currently able to receive anything even resembling Constitutional Rule of Law because their power has been usurped by the Supreme Court. It requires a Congressional Act to reverse the Supreme Court or bring impeachment proceedings against a member of the Supreme Court. We, The People of the United States of America cannot expect to regain our Constitutional power without first regaining our Providential power given us by the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why we must first, and foremost allign ourselves with Him, and follow His Mouthpiece who is Currently the Prophet, and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley.

    The Lord expects much from those who have been given much, and we the people of the United States of America have received more than any other nation upon this earth in the form of material plenty, and devine protection, but we have been derelict in our duties for many years now, and the Lord is attempting to awaken us from our deep sleep. Those of us who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been given an even greater charge to befriend the Constitution of the United States of America, obey all of His commandments, and bring the contents of The Book of Mormon to the attention of every soul upon this earth. Until we accomplish some semblance of loyalty to these requirements we will not be worthy to reside in a society wherein we are as free as we were when the founders were gathered together to obey the Lord’s will for them.

    I have found a wealth of helpful information at http://www.inspiredconstitution.org. I sincerely hope you will all consider spending some time there. This site links to many other works by members of the church, and many talks, and testimonies born by past Prophets, Seers, and Revelators. One of them is Jerome Horowitz who penned the work entitled “The Elders of Israel and the Constitution.”

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