Ten Reasons to Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney

[babsbunny]

http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88?ad=d8

I ask Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney for the following reasons:
1. Violating the United Nations Charter by launching an illegal "War of Aggression" against Iraq without cause, using fraud to sell the war to Congress and the public, misusing government funds to begin bombing without Congressional authorization, and subjecting our military personnel to unnecessary harm, debilitating injuries, and deaths.

2. Violating U.S. and international law by authorizing the torture of thousands of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths, and keeping prisoners hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

[El Supremo]

1. One more: Murder of innocent civilians and our own troops for an unjust war. n/m

[pat_k]

2. Just need one charge. Congress could rescue the nation in a week.

Keep it simple. (Something most of the folks on our side, including myself, aren't very good at.)

Impeachment on any grounds is better than no impeachment at all, but there is no simpler or more compelling reason for removal than torture. There is nothing more subversive than their fascist fantasy of unitary authoritarian power they invoke to "defend" their actions. There are no charges that are more likely to result in removal.

Prosecution for war crimes is the prosecution they fear most. Their own futile attempts to find cover -- the public statements, executive orders, and signing statements -- condemn them.

"Water torture" ("waterboarding" to the propagandists) is absolutely and unequivocally forbidden under U.S. Federal Law. It is as clearly forbidden as "The Rack" and "Thumbscrews." Bush and Cheney refuse to acknowledge that subjecting any person to water torture is immoral, inhumane, and prohibited in ALL circumstances. They refuse to acknowledge that arbitrarily seizing and indefinitely committing any person to U.S. custody is prohibited in all circumstances.

These laws are the core and inviolable principles of any moral nation. Our treatment of the people who are in the custody of the state and the processes by which they are committed to state custody are central to our identity as Americans. Their refusal to acknowledge these laws, in and of itself, makes their continued presence in the White House intolerable.

You don't enforce the law by passing duplicate laws. To do so just feeds the lunactic notion that our laws don't already forbid torture.

Seeking to override a veto under rule by signing statement in order to "put Republicans on the record" is easily dismissed as the meaningless "strategery" that it is. Only impeachment can actually stop them. Only impeachment means a damn thing. Only impeachment would engage the public's attention.

We don't need "investigations" An indefensible case to impeach and remove Bush and Cheney for refusing to reject torture could be put before the public in a day of hearings. When the case is boiled down, even the blowhards on the Hill might find it hard to draw it out to week.

Instead of seeking to override the veto, they could draft and vote Articles out of committee by the end of the week.

As we learned in http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/31178">New Hampshire there is no "debate." People willing to publicly defend the indefensible are few and far between.

The case makes itself. Bush and Cheney have offered their "defense." All that remains is to call on the public, and the Members of the House, to say Yea or Nay to torture; to say Yea or Nay to authoritarian rule.

Articles of impeachment could be on the way to the Senate in a week.