The perils presented by the president’s surveillance programs pale in comparison with the broader threat from his theory of unlimited power, which assaults the rule of law itself – Joe W. Pitts
Never in the history of our nation have we been
so in need of impeaching and removing from office a President and Vice President of the United States. Yet Congress seems very reluctant to pursue such a course of action. Since Congress, especially Democrats in Congress, must recognize the vast array of crimes against our Constitution committed by the Bush administration; and since they must recognize that failure to impeach these criminals will set a precedent for our nation which implies that crimes against our Constitution are not really serious offenses; it must therefore be fear of possible political repercussions that prevent our Congress from taking the action that they know should be taken in order to show the world and ourselves that we are a Constitutional democracy after all.
That being the case, perhaps a show of massive support for impeachment from the American citizenry is required to exert the pressure on Congress that will compel them to act. “
Impeach for Peace” is an organization devoted to showing American citizens what we can do to promote that process:
Impeach for Peace, a Minnesota-based impeachment group, has researched a method for impeaching the president using a little known and rarely used part of the Rules of the House of Representatives ("Jefferson’s Manual"). This document actually empowers individual citizens to initiate the impeachment process themselves.
"Jefferson's Manual" is an interpretive guide to parliamentary procedure, and is included (along with the Constitution) in the bound volumes of the Rules of the House of Representatives. It is ratified by each congress (including the current one), and has been updated continuously through the history of our democracy. The section covering impeachment lists the acceptable vehicles for bringing impeachment motions to the floor of the House.
Before the House Judiciary Committee can put together the Articles of Impeachment, someone must initiate the impeachment procedure. Most often, this occurs when members of the House pass a resolution. Another method outlined in the manual, however, is for individual citizens to submit a memorial for impeachment…. Any citizen can download the “Do it Yourself ” (DIY) Impeachment Memorial and submit it, making it possible for Americans to do what our representatives have been unwilling to do. The idea is for so many people to submit the Memorial that it cannot be ignored. We hope to flood the congress with sacks of mail to further pressure them to act on the memorials. Please demand accountability and ensure the strength of the impeachment movement.
Just go to
THIS SITE to obtain everything you need for submitting a petition to your Congressional Representative. It includes a printable petition, cover letter, a printable petition, and directions for filling them out.
The petition requests impeachment on the basis of: lying to the American public and Congress in order justify an illegal war; illegal warrantless spying on American citizens; torture of prisoners in violation of international and U.S. law; and stripping Americans of their Constitutional rights by ordering the indefinite detention of citizens without charges or opportunity to defend themselves, etc. The petition concludes:
In all of this George Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President, subversive of Constitutional government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States….
Wherefore and inasmuch as said George W. Bush has violated the most sacred and undoubted rights of the inhabitants of these United States, your petitioner prays that the conduct and proceedings in this behalf, of said George W. Bush, may be inquired into by your honorable body, and such decision made therein to impeach…. and to inform the Senate of these facts by resolution (Manual Sec. 607; Deschler Ch 14 Sec. 9) for trial and removal from office ….
Impeach for Peace also asks us:
We need leaders. Ask yourself if you're willing to put in the time to help make this happen. No hiearchy, no egos. Our organization is proud of the fact that anybody who has the desire can step up and make things happen. There are a few of us who started things initially, but we're all in agreement that this movement must be democratic, and open to all. Anyone who wants to step up and make this happen, is free to. We'll provide you any resources to which we have access to help make your dreams of Bush-Free America come true.
We do need your help. This can't happen without people stepping up to demand Bush step down. Please contact us, come to a meeting (info on the website), and become a player in this movement. We have plenty of projects which are as-of-yet undone. Which one of you would like to head up the project to get the Minnesota Legislature to pass an impeachment resolution? We know how, and can provide you the resources necessary.
A warning as to the danger of our current situation by The Washington Spectator I have voiced the opinion many times that failure to remove Bush and Cheney from office will
set a terrible precedent and very possibly hasten the slide of our nation towards tyranny. Here I’ll conclude with some prescient words from the March issue of The
Washington Spectator, from the end of
an article by Joe W. Pitts, where he explains why the Bush administration’s illegal domestic spying program has not ended just because it says it has:
The perils presented by the president’s surveillance programs pale in comparison with the broader threat from his theory of unlimited power, which assaults the rule of law itself (as evident in everything from his “signing statements,” by means of which he reserves the right to ignore laws he dislikes; to his detention policies; to the suspension of habeas corpus; and threats to prosecute the free press for reporting on all of these programs). Stephen Colbert recently joked that in a war without limits, the president’s power should be unlimited. But the rest of us should be concerned that it’s already unlimited if the president can ignore laws like FISA that were passed to stop precisely these sorts of abuses historically arising from unchecked power….
Excesses like the TSP surveillance not only betray our values, but tend to produce negative practical consequences: insecurity and fear rather than security. Those who ask what harm this can cause if you’re innocent might want to recall the many innocent people whose privacy and free expression have already been violated: the U.S. citizens and foreigners rounded up and mistreated after 9/11; those wrongly locked up in Guantanamo Bay and a network of secret detention facilities; the peace activists who have been harassed, spied on, and blocked by “no-fly” lists; and America’s general slide toward being one of those fearful surveillance societies we’ve always thought could not be more different from us….
The new Congress has thus far not lived up to its promise to address these and other civl liberties and human rights violations and, where necessary, reassert the rule of law. It took grassroots pressure to defeat the president’s attempt to legalize these programs during the recent lame-duck session, and it will take grassroots pressure on the new Congress to achieve real reform. Congress must call immediate and comprehensive hearings both to stop this illicit surveillance and to hold accountable those who have ordered it.
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