Activists, politicians speak of impeachment (but a new spin to counter)

[ProSense]

Posted on Tue, Jan. 24, 2006

Some activists, politicians speaking openly about impeachment

BY JIM PUZZANGHERA
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The word "impeachment" is popping up increasingly these days and not just off the lips of liberal activists spouting predictable bumper-sticker slogans.

After the unfounded claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and recent news of domestic spying without warrants, mainstream politicians and ordinary voters are talking openly about the possibility that President Bush could be impeached. So is at least one powerful Republican senator, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Snip…

But a poll released last week by Zogby International showed 52 percent of American adults thought Congress should consider impeaching Bush if he wiretapped U.S. citizens without court approval, including 59 percent of independents and 23 percent of Republicans. (The survey had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.)


Snip…


Stanford University historian Jack Rakove, a constitutional expert, said breaking the law on domestic spying would qualify as an impeachable offense, but that Congress should be hesitant to pursue it. The Clinton impeachment was a major distraction for the nation, he said. Some have suggested it hurt the U.S. effort against al-Qaida before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Despite such concerns, some liberal activists say it's time to impeach Bush. Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com, has formed ImpeachPAC to fund campaigns of congressional candidates who support impeachment. It has raised more than $52,000 in 10 weeks.

"If the truth comes out," Fertik said, "there will be an open-and-shut case for a high crime of breaking the law."


http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/politics/13701168.htm

Impeach Bush for:

staring into space for seven minutes as the worst attack ever seen on American soil occurred;

letting OBL escape, starting an illegal war and causing unnecessary deaths and devastation;

lying to congress and the American people;

sanctioning torture;

being MIA while the remnants of one of the worst natural disaster in American history and his administration's negligence resulted in more than 1,300 deaths and left thousands more homeless, demonstrating a pattern of rewarding failure;

illegally spying on Americans;

packing the SCOTUS with people who hate the Constitution (the latest being "liberal's worse nightmare," according to Rubberstamp Republican Sen. Frist);

having links to a network of crooks who have perpetrated the crime of the century…

nah, impeachment would distract the Crook in Chief from making speeches in which he refers to himself and the terrrist as folks and continually mangles the English language:

Snip…

You know, a lot of us grew up thinking that oceans would protect us; that if there was a threat overseas, it really didn't concern us because we were safe. That's what history had basically told us -- yes, there was an attack on Pearl Harbor, obviously, but it was a kind of hit-and-run and then we pursued the enemy. A lot of folks -- at least, my age, when I was going to college, I never dreamed that the United States of America could be attacked. And in that we got attacked, I vowed then, like I'm vowing to you today, that I understand my most important priority. My most important job is to protect the security of the American people.

Perhaps the best way to describe their political vision is to remind you what life was like for people living in Afghanistan when the Taliban was running that country with al Qaeda as the parasite. If you were a young girl in that society, you had no chance to get educated. If you spoke out against the view of these folks, their religious view, you could be taken to the public square and whipped. In other words, there was not freedom. There wasn't freedom to worship the way you want to, just like we believe here in the United States of America. You can worship, you can not worship in our country, and you're equally American. You can be a Christian, Jew or Muslim, and you're equally American. It's the greatness of the United States of America which -- (applause) -- which stands in stark contrast to what these ideologues believe.


http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060123/dcm069.html?.v=15

Oh, I forgot, all of this is Clinton’s fault.

:sarcasm:

[Kagemusha]

1. You could list Wilson and FDR's wartime abuses too...

And if you go back before the turn of the 20th century you'll find lots of stuff.

About the only real difference is that Congress passed laws to restrain the executive from doing types of search and seizures that weren't possible in the days of the Alien and Sedition Acts. But there's an awful lot of abuses over a long period of time under the theory of executive power.

[ProSense]

2. It's the difference.

Throughout American history, laws have been enacted to extend and protect civil liberties. At any point in time, breaking existing law is a crime that cannot be justified base on what used to happen before the laws were enacted.