King George III Won: Happy Fourth of July!
By David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/node/58333

The Declaration of Independence is best remembered as a declaration of war, a war declared on the grounds that we wanted our own flag. The sheer stupidity and anachronism of the idea serves to discourage any thoughts about why Canada didn't need a bloody war, whether the U.S. war benefitted people outside the new aristocracy to whom power was transferred, what bothered Frederick Douglas so much about a day celebrating "independence," or what the Declaration of Independence actually said.

When you read the Declaration of Independence, it turns out to be an indictment of King George III for various abuses of power. And those abuses of power look fairly similar to abuses of power we happily permit U.S. presidents to engage in today, either as regards the people of this nation or the people of territories and nations that our military occupies today in a manner uncomfortably resembling Britain's rule over the 13 colonies.

Or perhaps I should say, a large portion of us take turns being happy or outraged depending on the political party with which the current president is identified.

US Representatives Maurice Hinchey (left) and Dennis Kucinich (right) came to Capitol Hill Friday to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the George W. Bush presidency. The hearing was on "Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitation." (Photo: Reuters)

Impeachment Hearings Are the Appropriate and Necessary Next Step
Friday 25 July 2008 » by: John Nichols, The Nation

As the House Judiciary Committee took up the question of how best to address what its chairman described as "the Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush," it was the ranking Republican in the room, Iowa Congressman Steve King, who observed that, "We are here having impeachment hearings before the Judiciary Committee.

"These are impeachment hearings before the United States Congress," King continued. "I never imagined I would ever be sitting on this side when something like this happened."

King was not happy about the circumstance.

A resolute defender of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, the congressman was objecting to the very mention of the "I" word.

As it happened, impeachment was mentioned dozens of times during the hearing, often in significant detail and frequently as a necessary response to lawless actions of the president and vice president.

[I only have a few mins. for this; had to go out of town and don't have a lot of time to find other links. First read the list of charges (all true) below, although I disagree with Hugh's assertion that Bush is incompetent - I think he's cunning and knows exactly what he's doing ... Have you read "The Shock Doctrine"? ... or "The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot"? - then click on the link to Bill's post about the Impeachment Hearing]

Support the Kucinich Impeachment Hearing

[Editorial Cartoon by the Bee's Rex Babin]

Hugh's Bush List

INTRODUCTION: George Bush, the Connecticut cowboy, the good old boy from Yale is a man of mediocre intelligence, little imagination, and great stubbornness and vindictiveness. He may be the Decider but his handlers have long known how to manipulate him. The key is to hook him with short, simple sells. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice knew that once he has consulted his gut and perhaps his higher father his decision is forever. So whoever gets to him first is likely to carry the day because he doesn't like to be challenged and is, quite simply, too lazy to change his mind. The Bubble is a natural consequence of this decision making process where logic, reason, and facts have little or no role.

Where will we be without accountability? We need to hold this administration accountable so that what they have done over the last 7 1/2 years never happens again.

We must remember that "the Founding Fathers gave Congress the power of impeachment as the only way to stop a President from defying the Constitution and becoming a dictator". As I read over the Constitution last night, I noted that Impeachment was so important to our Founding Fathers, that they put it near the top of the first page in Article 1, Section 2. It is mentioned another 5 times in the Constitution. I know some of you are saying that we don't have time for impeachment. If not now, after all the Bush administration has done, then when? If impeachment was important to our founders as a way to protect our Constitution, shouldn't it be important to us?

--Bill

Tell your Representatives to support impeachment by cosponsoring H. Res. 1345:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/142

Rep. Dennis Kucinich has led the fight for impeachment since April 2007, when he courageously introduced 3 Articles of Impeachment (H.Res. 333/799) against Vice President Cheney. On June 10, Kucinich introduced 35 Articles of Impeachment (H.Res. 1258) against President Bush.

When Speaker Pelosi refused to allow hearings on any of the 38 Articles, Kucinich returned to the floor of Congress to introduce one more Article of Impeachment against President Bush (H.Res. 1345).

Thanks to massive pressure from Democrats.com and our pro-impeachment allies, Speaker Pelosi finally allowed Chairman Conyers to hold a hearing this Friday. Kucinich will get a few minutes to argue for impeachment along with Rep. Robert Wexler, former Rep. Liz Holtzman, and former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson. Kucinich made a video to thank us for our efforts.

H.Res. 1345 focuses on Bush's ultimate crime - invading Iraq on the basis of lies. The evidence is overwhelming that George Bush and other top officials manufactured those lies to "sell" an invasion whose real purpose was to gain control of Iraq's oil and establish military bases in the heart of the Middle East - the agenda of the Project for a New American Century that Bush and McCain fully embraced.

When Kucinich testifies on Friday, he will naturally face hostile questions from rightwing Republicans who impeached President Clinton. But Kucinich will also face hostile questions from key Democrats who oppose impeachment.

Sign the petition at Congressman Kucinich's website.

Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/34943
By David Swanson

That's the latest title that Chairman John Conyers has given the hearing his House Judiciary Committee will hold on Friday, July 25th. The previous title had been "The Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush and Possible Legal Responses." The idea that had preceded that one was to hold a hearing on Congressman Dennis Kucinich's latest article of impeachment: "DECEIVING CONGRESS WITH FABRICATED THREATS OF IRAQ WMDs TO FRAUDULENTLY OBTAIN SUPPORT FOR AN AUTHORIZATION OF THE USE OF MILITARY FORCE AGAINST IRAQ."

The problem with that initial idea, of course, was that impeachment is opposed by Nancy Pelosi who recently explained that she's against it because she's "bipartisan", and by Barack Obama, who says it should be "reserved for exceptional circumstances", and by John Conyers who claims that if he upheld the Constitution Fox News would call him mean names, not to mention Harold Ford who alleges that "The Constitution doesn't poll well," and Cass Sunstein who argues against ever holding Bush or Cheney to account for anything, and Chuck Schumer who insists that voters don't care about detentions and torture and such things.

How They'll Try to Bury Impeachment and Fail
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/34899
By David Swanson

In response to public demand for impeachment hearings and pressure from Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Congressman Robert Wexler, and others, as well as electoral challenges by pro-impeachment candidates, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally caved and proposed to allow Kucinich to present impeachment in a Judiciary Committee hearing.

The hearing was then scheduled for a Friday (July 25) and scheduled to last a full two-hours (10 a.m. to noon). Then the topic was altered. Rather than being about impeachment, the hearing will be about impeachment and other supposed remedies to a lawless presidency, with the bulk of the time devoted to those other remedies. Most of those other remedies will involve, believe it or not, legislative proposals. Thus, the dererrence to future presidents who follow the Bush-Cheney tradition of violating all laws and checks on power will be the knowledge that during the administration following Bush-Cheney some bills were passed criminalizing what had always been criminal activity.

Video Part 1 (4:57)

Video Part 2 (9:18)

UPDATE: The full text of the articles can be found here: http://www.democrats.com/files/amomentoftruth.pdf

What you can do:

Please call Dennis' office to thank him: 202-225-5871

Email your Representatives to support Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment

Call your Representative at 202-224-3121

Call your favorite talk shows and tell everyone who supports impeachment to sign the petition at Democrats.com

http://www.democrats.com/35-articles-of-impeachment

Hellooo, is anyone out there? Wake up people!! This is the most corrupt administration in the history of our country. How many more reasons do we need to impeach these guys? There is absolutely no chance that these backup tapes could be missing, unless it was intentional.
--Bill

White House can't find '03 e-mail files
Chicago Tribune - May 7, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has not found disaster backup files for White House e-mails from a three-month period in 2003, according to court documents filed this week, raising the possibility that messages sent before and after the invasion of Iraq may be gone.

The White House chief information officer, Theresa Payton, said in a sworn declaration that the earliest recorded file was dated May 23 of that year.

Please call, fax & email Conyers' office to call for impeachment investigations to begin!

202-225-5126 Conyers' DC Office
202-224-3121 Capitol Switchboard (ask for Conyers' office)
202-225-3951 Conyers' Judiciary Committee Office
313-961-5670 Detroit, MI Office
734-675-4084 Trenton, MI Office

202-225-0072 Conyers' DC Fax#

Conyers' Phone Rings Steadily for Two Days
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/30952
By David Swanson

There's a new rule on Capitol Hill: the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee can remove impeachment from the Constitution, but cannot also use telephones, Email, or fax machines, because the flood of pro-impeachment communications from outraged citizens is overwhelming each of those devices. Don't believe me? Try phoning, Emailing, or faxing John Conyers' office.

AOL is taking a poll on whether you think Bush and Cheney should be arrested. Click here to vote.

'Arrest' Bush Petition Ignites Firestorm
By JOHN CURRAN, AP | Posted: 2008-01-30 14:11:03

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (Jan. 30) - A town petition making President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney subject to arrest for crimes against the Constitution has triggered a barrage of criticism from people who say residents are "wackjobs" and "nuts."

In e-mail messages, voicemail messages and telephone calls, outraged people are calling the measure the equivalent of treason and vowing never to visit Vermont.

"Has everyone up there been out in the cold too long?" said one.

No More Investigations Please
By David Swanson
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24608

In a December 31, 2007, editorial, the New York Times faulted the current president and vice president of the United States for kidnapping innocent people, denying justice to prisoners, torturing, murdering, circumventing U.S. and international law, spying in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and basing their actions on "imperial fantasies."

Bush's and Cheney's crimes stand open on the table before us. Their lies about Iraqi ties to al Qaeda are on videotape and in writing, and they continue to make them to this day. Their claims about Iraqi weapons have been shown in every detail to have been, not mistakes, but lies. Their threats to and lies about Iran are on videotape. Bush being warned about Katrina and claiming he was not are on videotape. Bush lying about illegal spying and later confessing to it are on videotape. A federal court has ruled that spying to be a felony. The Supreme Court has ruled Bush and Cheney's system of detentions unconstitutional. Torture, openly advocated for by Bush and Cheney and their staffs, is documented by victims, witnesses, and public photographs.