Home > Why Peace Organizations Should Work for the Impeachment of Bush and Cheney
Why Peace Organizations Should Work for the Impeachment of Bush and Cheney
by Open-Publishing - Monday 20 February 20065 comments
Movement Wars and conflicts Governments USA
1.-Impeachment is where people’s energy is, all over the country. If we want a large and growing and democratic movement, we should listen to our members.
2.-Exposing the lies and the crimes related to this war is, more than anything else, building opposition to the war, as well as to future wars. There is no better way to expose the crimes than to demand an investigation that could lead to impeachment. (As demanded by H Res 635.)
3.-Bush and Cheney have given dozens of speeches making it abundantly clear that the US will never get out of Iraq as long as they are in the White House. Congress has put up no serious challenge to that state of affairs.
4.-Not only may Bush and Cheney soon attack another country, but future administrations will be far more likely to launch aggressive wars if Bush and Cheney face no consequences for having launched this one.
5.-Every organization can work on impeachment. Articles of impeachment, or a bill for an investigation (like H Res 635), are no more partisan than any other piece of legislation. Even 501c3s can spend 15 percent of their resources on lobbying for legislation. It will be very difficult to impeach Bush and Cheney, or get out of Iraq, without bipartisan support.
6.-We may not achieve an investigation, or impeachment, or removal from office until there are fewer Republicans in Congress. But, then again, we may. It is our place to act, not to make predictions. But, for those making predictions, impeachment is no more implausible or unreasonable than ending the war.
7.-If we want to elect a Congress more likely to end the war, we will be wise to raise the issue of impeachment so that it becomes a campaign issue. There is stronger and more passionate support for impeachment than for any other issue. We need something people are passionate about if we are going to turn out voters in an off year. (www.afterdowningstreet.org/polling )
8.-We cannot wait and push for impeachment later, after an election. Newly elected Congress Members, of whatever party, will not take up a cause they were not forced to campaign on. Instead they will argue that 2008 is just around the corner and the time is, once again, not right.
9.-We cannot count on a new Congress to end the war or alter the Bush-Cheney agenda in any major way, without impeachment. Bush and Cheney will continue their policy of treating Congress as if it doesn’t exist. They will ignore laws passed by Congress that they do not support.
10.-We cannot be afraid of impeaching Bush because Cheney might be worse. An investigation into possible grounds for impeachment serves an educational and political purpose, whether or not we get to impeachment. We further discredit the administration and its supporters in Congress, and we help to build an opposition. It would be virtually impossible to investigate Bush or Cheney without incriminating the other one. Cheney is running the show now backstage. If by some combination of incredibly improbably occurrences he ended up president, we’d be better off with him up front as a walking advertisement for the opposition.
11.-It is our duty to demand impeachment. If you cannot impeach for the highest crime imaginable, taking the nation to war on the basis of lies, then you can never impeach, or impeachment must be reserved for sex. It is the duty of every citizen to demand what is right and just, come what may. More important than who sits in the Oval Office is that they know that we can hold them accountable for their actions.
publisher’s note:
Currently in congress the only move toward impeachment is a resolution by John Conyers to create a committee to investigate the lies over Iraq, which he introduced in the wake of the illegal wiretapping discovery.
We do not need a committee to investigate Iraq. We need John Conyers to introduce articles of impeachment over the illegal wiretapping NOW! Remember how Nixon resigned over illegal wiretapping John Conyers??-you were there!! It is because it is illegal. Now do your freaking job!
Forum posts
20 February 2006, 16:59
CONYERS INVESTIGATING IS LIKE TAKING CHENEY HUNTING WITH YOU , YOU CAN DEPEND ON MAJOR NO BID MONEY COMING YOUR WAY BUT YOU BETTER DUCK FOR COVER
21 February 2006, 05:47
February 20, 2006
The "Direct Proposition To Impeach," A Way For Any One Congressman Or Delegate To Bring Bush Impeachment To The Floor Of The House
by-passing all Committees, and impossible to stop
by Rev. Bill McGinnis
There is a way - little known but perhaps highly effective - by which a matter of Impeachment can be brought immediately to the floor of the House Of Representatives, by-passing all Committees, and impossible to stop: and this is the "Direct Proposition To Impeach," by which any one single Member or Delegate can propose a Motion to Impeach, directly from the floor of the House. Such a motion is highly privileged, taking precedence over almost everything else. And if it is at first defeated, it can be proposed again repeatedly, as a matter of privilege.
This method is listed and explained on pages 314-316 of the current "House Rules And Manual" which is officially described as "the fundamental source material for parliamentary procedure used in the House of Representatives." All of this is located at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/hrm/index.html
The exact URL for the specific information on impeachment is located at:
(text version) http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_house_rules_manual&docid=hruletx-57
and (pdf version) http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_house_rules_manual&docid=hruletx-57.pdf
I have copied this section into a text file located at http://www.loveallpeople.org/impeachment.txt
The list of methods to initiate impeachment is shown below (with footnote references removed, for clarity). The method of Direct Proposition To Impeach is shown first, "by charges made on the floor on the responsibility of a Member or Delegate."
". . . there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion: by charges made on the floor on the responsibility of a Member or Delegate; by charges preferred by a memorial, which is usually referred to a committee for examination; by a resolution dropped in the hopper by a Member and referred to a committee; by a message from the President; by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State or territory, or from a grand jury ; or from facts developed and reported by an investigating committee of the House." (footnotes not shown here)
The same list, with footnote references included, is shown below:
"In the <> House there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion: by charges made on the floor on the responsibility of a Member or Delegate (II, 1303; III, 2342, 2400, 2469; VI, 525, 526, 528, 535, 536); by charges preferred by a memorial, which is usually referred to a committee for examination (III, 2364, 2491, 2494, 2496, 2499, 2515; VI, 543); by a resolution dropped in the hopper by a Member and referred to a committee (Apr. 15, 1970, p. 11941; Oct. 23, 1973, p. 34873); by a message from the President (III, 2294, 2319; VI, 498); by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State (III, 2469) or territory (III, 2487) or from a grand jury (III, 2488); or from facts developed and reported [1] by an investigating committee of the House (III, 2399, 2444)."
The issue of "privilege" is covered here, in this same section:
"A direct <> proposition to impeach is a question of high privilege in the House and at once supersedes business otherwise in order under the rules governing the order of business (III, 2045-2048, 2051, 2398; VI, 468, 469; July 22, 1986, p. 17294; Aug. 3, 1988, p. 20206; May 10, 1989, p. 8814; Sept. 23, 1998, pp. 21560-62; see Deschler, ch. 14, Sec. 8). It may not even be superseded by an election case, which is also a matter of high privilege (III, 2581). It does not lose its privilege from the fact that a similar proposition has been made at a previous time during the same session of Congress (III, 2408), previous action of the House not affecting it (III, 2053)."
It is always possible that the opponents of Bush Impeachment (or of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Impeachment) will try to find a way to get around these applicable rules. But if they try to do so, we can make an issue out of their "willingness to break the rules whenever they want to do so," which is so typical of the Bush Administration and their blind followers in Congress.
Blessings to you. May God help us all. And may God bless America!
Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - LoveAllPeople.org
http://www.loveallpeople.org
and http://www.internetchurchofchrist.org
And the official reference URL for this page is http://www.loveallpeople.org/directpropositiontoimpeach.html
[1] Page 315
21 February 2006, 15:00
I have been advocating Impeachment in almost every article I have written for "The American Chronicle" since June of 2005. They can be seen at: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewByAuthor.asp?authorID=175
It’s High Time some action is taken soon before its too late.
Earl J Prignitz
21 February 2006, 17:58
RAMSEY CLARK:
Impeachment is the most important issue facing Constitutional government
in the United States. Impeachment will determine whether the American
people will hold the Bush administration accountable for its High Crimes
and Misdemeanors: the supreme international crime — a war of
aggression, rampant militarism, torture, surreptitious laws and
treaties, and economic policies that steal from the poor and middle
class to further enrich the rich.
Impeachment is also the test that will determine whether We, the People
of the United States, still have the power to affect the conduct of our
own elected officials and the will to exercise that power.
George Bush seeks $2.77 trillion for the 2007 Fiscal Year budget
providing for more military aggression and less education, health care
and other programs for the people.
He has nearly three more years to take our country into more wars maybe
in Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, or Sudan; three more years
to trash the Bill of Rights at home and destroy all respect for the
United States abroad; three more years to enrich the rich, impoverish
the middle class and poor, undermine the U.S. economy and burden future
generations of Americans with burdens they cannot bear.
Only Impeachment will warn the next Presidents that the American
people will hold them accountable if they lawlessly lead us into wars,
aggression and criminal acts to control foreign government and exploit
their peoples.
Only Impeachment will assure governments and peoples around the
world that the American people understand what their government has
done, that the American people are strong and good, and have impeached
and removed their lawless leaders from office for violating all the
principles America has always espoused, and that We, the People of the
United States will remain vigilant and see to it that the government of
the United States will hereafter seek peace, friendship, equality of
nations and peoples, and respect for the human dignity of every child,
woman, and man on Earth.
I urge you to enlist now in the Impeachment Movement for the
duration, to organize your community in the struggle and to raise and
contribute funds essential to secure the Impeachment of George W. Bush,
Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and other civil officers
found to have committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
21 February 2006, 20:55
publisher’s note: Currently in congress the only move toward impeachment is a resolution by John Conyers to create a committee to investigate the lies over Iraq, which he introduced in the wake of the illegal wiretapping discovery.
We do not need a committee to investigate Iraq. We need John Conyers to introduce articles of impeachment over the illegal wiretapping NOW! Remember how Nixon resigned over illegal wiretapping John Conyers??-you were there!! It is because it is illegal. Now do your freaking job!
Conyers 207 page minority report, "Constitution in Crisis:" along with H.Res.635 was filed on Dec 20, 2005. The heavily researched report took his staff lawyers 6 months to prepare. NSA unwarranted domestic spying was revealed shortly afterwards. Do not fault Congressman John Conyers Jr for not doing his job. There are hundreds of congressman fully capable of doing the same. As a matter of fact, he is the only one doing his job!