Two more US soldiers have died in Iraq. For what?
The Emperor has no uniform...
John Bonifaz and Bob Fertik, www.tompaine.com: This nation is at a crossroads. These are not simply issues to be debated in a presidential election. These are "high crimes" in the most profound meaning of the phrase, and they require the most serious of legal responses...Where is the political accountability? Where is the constitutional consistency? Where are the voices of our nation's leaders calling for the investigation of impeachable offenses?
Repudiate the 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies, Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10176
Impeachable Offenses
John Bonifaz is an attorney in Boston and the author of Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George W. Bush (NationBooks-NY, January 2004). Bob Fertik is the co-founder of democrats.com, an independent community of Democratic activists.
President George W. Bush—whose own election was dubious—has seized monarchical powers in sending this nation into war without any legitimate congressional declaration of war or equivalent congressional action. He has lied to the United States Congress and to the American people about the rationale for the war. He has imprisoned American citizens without charges and denied them access to lawyers and the courts. He has thus trampled on the United States Constitution and he has violated his oath of office.
This nation is at a crossroads. These are not simply issues to be debated in a presidential election. These are "high crimes" in the most profound meaning of the phrase, and they require the most serious of legal responses.
Our Constitution lays out a specific process for addressing high crimes committed by a president: impeachment. The time has come for Congress to investigate these crimes and begin impeachment proceedings. Our loyalty to our Constitution requires nothing less.
Marches, like those held on March 20, 2004, which drew hundreds of thousands of protesters, are important, but they are not enough. Petitions, like those initiated by MoveOn.org and its allies, calling for censure of the president are important, but they are not enough. Voter mobilization campaigns focused on defeating George W. Bush on Election Day are important, but they are not enough.
Impeachment is essential because George W. Bush should be labeled for who he is: A president who has gone beyond the bounds of the Constitution, who has defied the rule of law, and who therefore deserves the ultimate constitutional punishment.
Former President Bill Clinton was impeached on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. But no one died as a result of the Monica Lewinsky affair. President Bush has sent this nation into an illegal war based on lies, resulting in the deaths thus far of more than 575 United States soldiers and thousands of Iraqi civilians. This war has no end in sight, and officials warn that U.S. troops could be there, fighting and dying, for 10 years or more.
Where is the political accountability? Where is the constitutional consistency? Where are the voices of our nation's leaders calling for the investigation of impeachable offenses?
If we believe in the Constitution and its timeless vision of democracy, we must now stand up and call for impeachment. History will judge us for how we responded when faced with a president who would be king. Did we rely on the badly flawed election process to set us free? Or did we demand, as the Constitution provides, the removal of that president from power? Did we speak the truth and charge that president with the highest of crimes?
Some will argue that we are too close to an election to make the call for impeachment. But we cannot afford to provide immunity for presidential high crimes so long as they are committed (or fully revealed) close to an election cycle. We must hold the president accountable for high crimes at any point in his or her term.
Moreover, we would be foolish to assume that the 2004 election will be a fair one. Millions of Americans still believe George W. Bush stole the 2000 election, thanks to the Supreme Court's controversial and partisan 5-4 decision which threw out 175,000 Florida votes that had never been counted. None of the documented crimes of 2000—including the deliberate disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of voters through a fraudulent purge of "felons" by Katherine Harris—have been prosecuted. Worse yet, many of the infamous punch card machines have been replaced with even more controversial electronic voting machines that make a recount impossible.
No president in our history has presented a greater threat to our Constitution and our democracy than George W. Bush. If we fail to place the proper charges of high crimes on this president, we invite him to engage in further lawlessness, further illegal war-making, further lies and further unnecessary bloodshed—now, or even more so in a second term. If we fail to protect the Constitution today, we invite its shredding tomorrow by an administration with even less regard for the Constitution than the present one.
Is lying to the United States Congress and the American people about the reasons for sending the nation into war an impeachable offense? Is violating the War Powers Clause of the Constitution by launching a unilateral first-strike invasion of another nation without congressional authorization an impeachable offense? Congress must debate these questions now. Congress may be in Republican hands, but all of its members swore to uphold the Constitution when taking office.
There are two roads in front of us. One takes us toward tyranny behind the mask of wartime necessity. The other returns us to our basic democratic principles where the Constitution is supreme and where no one, not even the president, is above the law.
We call upon Americans of all political persuasions to join the call for impeachment. We ask you to call or write your Member of Congress to urge him or her to introduce articles of impeachment. We also encourage you to sign a petition at www.impeachcentral.com, to send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, and to forward this article to all of your friends. Raise your voice now, at this critical moment.
Let us take the road back to democracy. Let us demand our country back from a lawless and unaccountable administration. Let us honor the oath this president has betrayed: to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10176
Published: Mar 31 2004